Final answer:
Proteins and nucleic acids both contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms. Proteins are made up of amino acids, while nucleic acids are made up of nucleotides consisting of a sugar, phosphate, and nitrogen base.
Step-by-step explanation:
Proteins and nucleic acids both contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms. However, nucleic acids also contain phosphorous atoms.
The monomers that make up proteins are amino acids. There are 20 different types of amino acids that can combine to form a protein.
The monomers that make up nucleic acids are nucleotides. Nucleotides consist of a sugar molecule, a phosphate group, and a nitrogen base. There are four different nitrogen bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The sequence of these nitrogen bases in nucleic acids determines the genetic code.