What is a breakdown of the word “deoxyribonucleic” from deoxyribonucleic acid?
What is a breakdown of the word “deoxyribonucleic” from deoxyribonucleic acid?
Last Updated on Saturday, 30 July 2011 07:43 Written by Administrator Saturday, 30 July 2011 07:43
Question by Fobo: What is a breakdown of the word “deoxyribonucleic” from deoxyribonucleic acid?
Whenever I search for etymology, I simply get the year the word came into use and a definition. I know what DNA is and absolutely *do not* want a summary.
I simply want a breakdown of the term “deoxyribonucleic.”
Thank you in advance!
Best answer:
Answer by charcinders
Nucleic: found in the nucleus of the cell
Deoxyribo.. : It contains the sugar deoxyribose. This is the same as the sugar ribose which is found in RNA, except that it has one less oxygen atom, hence de-oxy-
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Tags: Acid, breakdown, Deoxyribonucleic, From, word
nucleic – found in the nucleus of the cell
ribo – held together by simple sugars called ribose
deoxy – without the oxygen bonds found in ribonucleic acid
well….
the deoxyribo part was derived from deoxyribose which is the “five carbon” pentose sugar that DNA is made up of, and DNA also consists of 2 strands of nucleotides- which would be the nucleic part of the name. Is this what you were looking for or did i completely just say what you said you didn’t need? lol sorry if I did.
deoxy refers to the lack of oxygen on the ribose (ribo) sugar group on the backbone. nucleic acid just refers to the fact that it’s a nucleic acid.
for comparison, ribonucleic acid (RNA) has a ribose that has an oxygen on the group, which is the most fundamental difference between DNA and RNA structure.
De – a prefix which means without
Oxy – refers to oxygen
Deoxy – without an oxygen. DNA has the sugar deoxyribose instead of ribose which is found in RNA (ribonucleic acid). Deoxyribose is missing an oxygen atom on the 2′ carbon.
Ribo – ribo refers to ribose, a monosaccharide aldopentose sugar, found in RNA and in a modified form in DNA (deoxyribose).
Nucleic – a molecule found int the nucleus of a cell, but even in prokaryotic cells which do not have a nucleus, DNA is still called deoxyribonucleic acid, nucleic refers to the fact that DNA is a a macromolecule belonging to the nucleic acid class (other macromolecules in the cell are carbohydrates, lipids and proteins).