Definition of adenine Adenine

/æˈdʌniˌn/ - [atduneen] - ad•e•nine

We found 5 definitions of adenine from 5 different sources.

What does adenine mean?

Noun Plural: adenines
adenine - (biochemistry) purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA
		A
		purine a colorless crystalline organic base containing nitrogen; the parent compound of various biologically important substances
		deoxyribonucleic acid, desoxyribonucleic acid, dna (biochemistry) a long linear polymer found in the nucleus of a cell and formed from nucleotides and shaped like a double helix; associated with the transmission of genetic information; "DNA is the king of molecules"
		ribonucleic acid, rna (biochemistry) a long linear polymer of nucleotides found in the nucleus but mainly in the cytoplasm of a cell where it is associated with microsomes; it transmits genetic information from DNA to the cytoplasm and controls certain chemical processes in the cell; "ribonucleic acid is the genetic material of some viruses"

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adenine (Noun)
A base, C5H5N5, found in certain glands and tissues, which pairs with thymine in DNA and uracil in RNA.

Adenine is a chemical component of DNA and RNA.

It forms several tautomers, compounds that can be rapidly interconverted and are often considered equivalent.

Function.

In DNA, adenine binds to thymine via two hydrogen bonds to assist in stabilizing the nucleic acid structures. In RNA, which is used in the cytoplasm for protein synthesis, adenine binds to uracil.

History.

In older literature, adenine was sometimes called Vitamin B4. It is no longer considered a true vitamin nor part of the Vitamin B complex. However, two B vitamins, niacin and riboflavin, bind with adenine to form the essential cofactors NAD and FAD respectively.

Some think that, at the origin of life on Earth, the first adenine was formed by the polymerization of five hydrogen cyanide (HCN) molecules. However, this has been criticized by some chemists.

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adenine in sign language