text: Hydrolysis (breaking) of phosphodiester bonds can be promoted in several ways. Phosphodiesterases are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of the phosphodiester bond. These enzymes are involved in repairing DNA and RNA sequences, nucleotide salvage, and in the conversion of cGMP and cAMP to GMP and AMP, respectively.  Hydrolysis of the phosphodiester bond also occurs chemically and spontaneously, without the aid of enzymes. For example, simple ribose (in RNA) has one more hydroxyl group than deoxyribose (in DNA), making the former less stable and more susceptible to alkaline hydrolysis, wherein relatively high pH conditions induce the breaking of the phosphodiester linkage between two ribonucleotides. The relative instability of RNA under hydroxyl attack of its phosphodiester bonds makes it inadequate for the storage of genomic information, but contributes to its usefulness in transcription and translation.