What part of a nucleotide is responsible for determining genetic information?

The part of a nucleotide that is responsible for determining genetic information is the nitrogenous base. Each nucleotide consists of three components: a phosphate group, a sugar, and a nitrogenous base. The nitrogenous base can be one of four types in DNA: adenine, thymine, cytosine, or guanine. The specific sequence of these bases encodes the genetic information necessary for the synthesis of proteins and the regulation of cellular processes. Variations in the arrangement of these bases allow for the diversity of genetic information across different organisms.

The sugar and phosphate group play structural roles in forming the backbone of the DNA or RNA strand, but they do not contain the information that dictates genetic traits. Deoxyribose, specifically found in DNA, is the sugar component; while it is essential for establishing the structure of DNA, it does not contribute to the sequence-dependent genetic information. Thus, the nitrogenous base is fundamentally what determines the genetic code within nucleotides.