What is the chemical difference between the chemical groups joined by DNA Polymerase and RNA Polymerase?
Both DNA and RNA polymerase work by joining Nucleotide Tri Phosphates (precursor fragments that eventually become the ATCG and U in the DNA and in the RNA strands) together according to a template strand. The difference between those used by DNApol and RNApol is in their names itself. DNApol NTPs contain a Deoxyribose sugar group (so they’re also called dNTPs) and RNA pol NTPs contain a Ribose sugar group. If you’re interested in the exact structural differences which, obviously I can’t write out, you can check out the wikipedia page on Nucleoside triphosphates and follow the links for each NTP (dATP, dGTP, GTP, ATP, etc) to see the images of their structures.
