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Ribose

• (biochemistry) an aldopentose (which means a five carbon sugar with an aldehyde functional group in its linear form) with a chemical formula C₅H₁₀O₅

• A sugar monomer in RNA (Ribonucleic acid); also found in other metabolically important compounds, e.g. ribonucleotides, nucleic acids, riboflavin, etc.

• Its close relative is deoxyribose, which is a constituent of dna (deoxyribonucleic acid). The difference between them is that ribose has one more oxygen atom in its molecule than deoxyribose.