ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ribonucleoside

Okay kiddo, you know how everything in our body is made up of tiny things called cells, right? And those cells have something called DNA, which tells them how to work and what to do? Well, ribonucleosides are kind of like building blocks for that DNA.

Imagine you want to build a really cool tower out of Lego pieces. The ribonucleosides are like the individual Lego pieces - small and not very exciting on their own, but when you put them together in the right order, they can make something amazing.

Ribonucleosides are made up of three parts: a sugar, a base, and a phosphate group. The sugar is like the foundation of the Lego piece, and the base is like the decoration on top. The phosphate group is like the little bumps on the top of the Lego piece that allow it to connect to other pieces.

When our body needs to make a new strand of DNA, it uses ribonucleosides to build it piece by piece, like a Lego tower. Each ribonucleoside is added to the growing DNA chain in a specific order to make sure the DNA sequence is correct.

So, ribonucleosides might seem small and simple on their own, but they play a really important role in making sure our DNA is built correctly and our cells can do their jobs!