Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A purine base, C5H5N5, that is the constituent involved in base pairing with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biochemistry, genetics A base, C5H5N5, found in certain glands and tissues, which pairs with thymine in DNA and uracil in RNA.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (biochemistry) purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Adenin, from Ancient Greek ἀδήν ("gland") + -ine.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word adenine.

Examples

  • The technology at the time required that DNA be cut up into tiny pieces, transferred into bacteria and then put into machines that figured out the genetic code by sorting, by length, the letters of the genetic code: A, T, G and C, also known as adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine.

    The New, Fast Gene Machine 2009

  • She had used the base pairs of the DNA --- combinations of pairs of four nucleotides called adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thy mine -- to encode her message.

    Delta Search Shatner, William 1997

  • Hydrogen cyanide is a component of adenine, which is a basic element of DNA.

    News and Features - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2009

  • The technology at the time required that DNA be cut up into tiny pieces, transferred into bacteria and then put into machines that figured out the genetic code by sorting, by length, the letters of the genetic code: A, T, G and C, also known as adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine.

    unknown title 2009

  • Hydrogen cyanide is a component of adenine, which is a basic element of DNA.

    unknown title 2009

  • The riboswitch Block's team studied grabbed onto a molecule called adenine, the nucleic acid dubbed "A."

    Biosingularity 2008

  • The riboswitch Block's team studied grabbed onto a molecule called adenine, the nucleic acid dubbed "A."

    Biosingularity 2008

  • This work, carried out between 1882 and 1906 showed that various substances, little known at that time, such as adenine, xanthine, in vegetable substances, caffeine and, in animal excrete, uric acid and guanine, all belonged to one homogeneous family and could be derived from one another and that they corresponded to different hydroxyl and amino derivatives of the same fundamental system formed by a bicyclic nitrogenous structure into which the characteristic urea group entered.

    Emil Fischer - Biography 1966

  • The genetic code refers to the sequence of nucleotides (such as adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, or A, C, T and G) that serve as the instructions for making amino acids, the building blocks of life.

    Scientific American 2010

  • The genetic code refers to the sequence of nucleotides (such as adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, or A, C, T and G) that serve as the instructions for making amino acids, the building blocks of life.

    Scientific American 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.