<P> Nucleic acids are the biopolymers, or small biomolecules, essential to all known forms of life . The term nucleic acid is the overall name for DNA and RNA . They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5 - carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base . If the sugar is a compound ribose, the polymer is RNA (ribonucleic acid); if the sugar is derived from ribose as deoxyribose, the polymer is DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). </P> <P> Nucleic acids are the most important of all biomolecules . They are found in abundance in all living things, where they function to create and encode and then store information in the nucleus of every living cell of every life - form organism on Earth . In turn, they function to transmit and express that information inside and outside the cell nucleus--to the interior operations of the cell and ultimately to the next generation of each living organism . The encoded information is contained and conveyed via the nucleic acid sequence, which provides the' ladder - step' ordering of nucleotides within the molecules of RNA and DNA . </P>

A monomer of nucleic acids is called what