What does nucleic acid mean?

The relevant definitions of nucleic acids are as follows:

Nucleic acid is a polynucleotide, and its basic structural unit is nucleotide. Nucleic acid is an important biological macromolecule. Nucleic acid is divided into deoxyribonucleic acid DNA and ribonucleic acid RNA. DNA is mainly concentrated in the nucleus, but outside the nucleus, such as mitochondria, can also contain small amounts of DNA, and RNA is mainly distributed in the cytoplasm.

Any cellular organism contains DNA and RNA, while viruses only contain nucleic acid. According to the type of nucleic acid contained, viruses can be divided into two categories: DNA viruses and RNA viruses. Nucleic acid is the material basis of biological inheritance. If any organism wants to reproduce its offspring, it needs to use DNA or RNA as a template to reproduce offspring. Therefore, nucleic acid is the material basis of biological inheritance.

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The substance detected by nucleic acid is the nucleic acid of the virus. Nucleic acid testing is to search for the presence of nucleic acid of foreign invading viruses in the patient's respiratory specimens, blood or stool to determine whether he or she is infected by the new coronavirus. Therefore, once the nucleic acid test is "positive", it can prove that the virus is present in the patient's body.

After the new coronavirus infects the human body, it will first reproduce in the respiratory system. Therefore, it can be determined whether the human body is infected with the virus by detecting the viral nucleic acid in sputum and nasopharyngeal swabs.