What type of nucleic acid contains the sugar ribose and the bases adenine, guanine, uracil, and cytosine?

Ribonucleic acid, commonly known as RNA, is the type of nucleic acid that contains the sugar ribose along with the nitrogenous bases adenine, guanine, uracil, and cytosine. The presence of ribose distinguishes RNA from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which contains deoxyribose and does not have uracil; instead, it has thymine. Furthermore, RNA is primarily involved in various biological roles, such as coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes, making it crucial for protein synthesis. The specific combination of ribose and the four bases is fundamental to the structure and function of RNA, serving as a template for synthesizing proteins, which is a key aspect of cellular function and heredity.