1. Nitrogenous base: This is a nitrogen-containing molecule that comes in four types: Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), and Thymine (T).
2. Deoxyribose sugar: This is a five-carbon sugar molecule, named deoxyribose because it lacks an oxygen atom on the second carbon.
3. Phosphate group: This is a molecule containing phosphorus and oxygen atoms.
These three components are linked together in a specific way: the nitrogenous base is attached to the deoxyribose sugar, and the phosphate group is attached to the deoxyribose sugar. This combination is called a nucleotide.
Multiple nucleotides link together to form a chain, creating a DNA molecule. The order of the nitrogenous bases along the chain is what determines the genetic information encoded in the DNA.
