Definitions

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

  • noun A pyrimidine base, C4H5N3O, that is the constituent of DNA and RNA involved in base-pairing with guanine.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biochemistry) A pyrimidine (C4H5N3O) which is one of the four major basic components of DNA and RNA in most organisms, forming glyosides with ribose and deoxyribose. It is the basic component of cytidine, deoxycytidine, cytosine, cytidine monophosphate, and derivatives of those compounds.

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

  • noun biochemistry A base, C4H5N3O, which pairs with guanine in DNA and RNA.

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

  • noun a base found in DNA and RNA and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with guanine

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[cyt(o)– + (rib)os(e) + –ine.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

After German Cytosin, from cyto- + -ose + -ine.

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Examples

  • The position of the atoms in cytosine could be determined, because under the action of an oxidizing agent this substance breaks down into biuret and oxalic acid, and this elucidation of its constitution was soon followed by its synthesis.

    Albrecht Kossel - Nobel Lecture 1967

  • DNA has four chemical bases - A, G, C and T - and ERV-9's DNA contains a lot of the C, or cytosine, which is easily chemically altered.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • Epigenetic modifications, such as cytosine methylation, are inherited in plant species and may occur in response to biotic or abiotic stress, affecting gene expression without changing genome sequence.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science Coturnix none@example.com 2010

  • Epigenetic modifications, such as cytosine methylation, are inherited in plant species and may occur in response to biotic or abiotic stress, affecting gene expression without changing genome sequence.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2010

  • The ten Light emanations purines a n d cytosine which is a are necessary to preserve the cor - pyrimidine.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows czaragon 2009

  • Alu elements coupled with cytosine deamination generate p53 binding sites.

    2009 October - Telic Thoughts 2009

  • Of the many difficulties encountered by those in the field, the most frustrating has been the failure to find any way of properly joining the pyrimidine nucleobases — cytosine and uracil — to ribose (Fig. 1a).

    Convincing Evidence for God 2010

  • For 40 years, efforts to understand the prebiotic synthesis of the ribonucleotide building blocks of RNA have been based on the assumption that they must have assembled from their three molecular components: a nucleobase (which can be adenine, guanine, cytosine or uracil), a ribose sugar and phosphate.

    Convincing Evidence for God 2010

  • I also just learned that methionine is resistant to cytosine deamination, and it sets the reading frame.

    Always finish what you start… 2008

  • I was told no engineer would have included cytosine in the DNA.

    A Life Code? 2008

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