Nucleotide Base

Key Stage 4

Meaning

Nucleotide bases are the different bases which can be part of a nucleotide monomer.

About Nucleotide Bases

There are 4 nucleotide bases:

• Adenine
• Thymine
• Guanine
• Cytosine

The nucleotide bases are arranged in complementary pairs. Adenine and Thymine pair up on opposite sides of the DNA strand. The same is true for Cytosine and Guanine. When the strand is pulled into two pieces this allows the DNA to make two exact copies of itself. So if one side of the strand has the code AAAACCCTTG then the other will have the code TTTTGGGAAC.