Five-carbon sugars of RNA and DNA
Deoxyribose lacks one hydroxyl group
Ribose and deoxyribose are pentoses, sugars with five carbon atoms that form a five-membered ring. Ribose is the sugar in RNA and in nucleotides such as ATP, while deoxyribose is the sugar in DNA. They differ only at the second carbon, where deoxyribose carries a hydrogen atom instead of a hydroxyl group. Without this reactive 2' hydroxyl group, DNA is chemically more stable than RNA, which suits its role in the long-term storage of genetic information.