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They are both nucleic acids.

Regarding structure, DNA and RNA are similar because they are both built of nucleotides, structures consisting of one nucleobase, a sugar (ribose or deoxyribose respectively) and a phosphate group.

For both of them, their function is mainly containing information in the form of code, using 4 different bases. They both use adenine, cytosine and guanine. The fourth base differs, DNA uses thymine while RNA uses uracil.

More detail: Ribose has one more OH group than deoxyribose. This makes it more reactive, increasing mutation rates. Hence why RNA genomes (e.g. in certain viruses) cannot exceed a certain size without the error rate during copying running so high that the copies can hardly be called copies. DNA genomes are stabler and can grow to much larger sizes (other viruses and all organisms larger than them).

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9y ago

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