The so-called mycorrhizal fungi are found in association with nearly all plants in nature, where they deliver essential nutrients-specifically phosphate-to plants in return for sugar.
DNA and RNA are made of nucleotides. Each unit is a three-part molecule with a phosphate at one end, a sugar in the middle and a variable nucleobase at the other end.
The term is also used interchangeably with “nucleotide” although the latter is composed of a five-carbon sugar joined to a phosphate group and one of the bases.