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Dictionary » N » Nucleotide

Nucleotide

Definition

noun, plural: nucleotides

The basic building block of nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA. It is an organic compound made up of nitrogenous base, a sugar, and a phosphate group.


Supplement

DNA molecule consists of nucleotides in which the sugar component is deoxyribose whereas the RNA molecule has nucleotides in which the sugar is a ribose. The most common nucleotides are divided into purines and pyrimidines based on the structure of the nitrogenous base. In DNA, the purine bases include adenine and guanine while the pyrimidine bases are thymine and cytosine. RNA includes adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil in stead of thymine (thymine is produced by adding a methyl to uracil).

Aside from serving as precursors of nucleic acids, nucleotides also serve as important cofactors in cellular signaling and metabolism. These cofactors include CoA, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), flavin mononucleotide, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP).


Word origin: nucleo- from nucleus + -ide (chemical suffix).

Related terms: nucleotide pyrophosphate transferase.

Compare: nucleoside.
See also: nucleic acid.


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bioinformTICS:

For the nucleotide sequence by using the genbank, embl , we can predict the nucleotide sequence and the protein sequence by using the swiss prot we can able to predict the structure and for the 3d structure by using pdb and scop ...

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by sathish
Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:41 am
 
Forum: Bioinformatics
Topic: bioinformTICS:
Replies: 2
Views: 44

Paramutation

... this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5011826.stm Yes, everything in a biological organism is sensitive to change. Even one exchange of nucleotide in the DNA can cause the organism to be in a disease state/not optimal. The flip side is also possible, where one change could bring on a ...

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by kolean
Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:04 pm
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: Paramutation
Replies: 5
Views: 105

multiple initiation sites.

... getting this correct, but if the second initiation site is in a different reading frame, you get a whole new protein product from within the same nucleotide sequence. This indeed happens in many prokaryotes, but I cannot recall if eukoaryotes had the same possibility. Anyway, that is the only ...

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by biohazard
Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:05 am
 
Forum: Cell Biology
Topic: multiple initiation sites.
Replies: 5
Views: 95

Anything beneficial to wrong nucleotide placement in DNA

Hello biologists, I have just finished a chapter on DNA replication and the proof reading it engages in. I also studied about the different types proof reading the cell engages in to make sure that the DNA is correct. HOWEVER, despite the numerous checks present in the cell to prevent the placement ...

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by NewtoBiology
Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:13 pm
 
Forum: Cell Biology
Topic: Anything beneficial to wrong nucleotide placement in DNA
Replies: 1
Views: 50

Re: DNA question.

So you have Species A and Species B. They both have the same amount of DNA, but have different ratios of the nucleotide bases. Do remember that Guanine is base paired with Cytosine (G+C), and Adenine is base paired with Thymidine (A+T). Species A has a G+C/A+T ratio of 2.0 (for ...

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by kolean
Mon Jul 06, 2009 1:24 am
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: DNA question.
Replies: 3
Views: 280
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