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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Pyrosequencing

... The I generate my dispensation order, and when I reach a mutation hot spot, I add two dispensations - one for the wild type and one for the mutant nucleotide. Question1: how come that these hot spots always change from e.g. G to C and not G to any nucleotide? I mean should I include all 4 nucleotides ...

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by kk
Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:08 pm
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: Pyrosequencing
Replies: 2
Views: 389

Okazaki_fregment

what's the accuracy? 1 nucleotide? 10 nucleotides? 100 nucleotides?

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by JackBean
Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:16 pm
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: Okazaki_fregment
Replies: 6
Views: 535

Re: Muscular dystrophy inheritance question

The lower sequence shows one trace for the male but for the female there are two traces at one nucleotide position (labelled N). That looks like the allelic difference; since the female has two copies of the dystrophin gene that differ slightly, this can give rise to the ...

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by firefly
Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:16 pm
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: Muscular dystrophy inheritance question
Replies: 7
Views: 1071

Re: Muscular dystrophy inheritance question

The lower sequence shows one trace for the male but for the female there are two traces at one nucleotide position (labelled N). That looks like the allelic difference; since the female has two copies of the dystrophin gene that differ slightly, this can give rise to the ...

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by jonmoulton
Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:06 pm
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: Muscular dystrophy inheritance question
Replies: 7
Views: 1071

Re:

... in the upper sequences as well. This must in turn mean that the unaffected male has a mutation as well. Does anyone know how there can be 2 nucleotides located on 1 position? (As there are 2 peaks at the positions located "N", while all the other positions only have 1 nucleotide). ...

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by firefly
Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:34 pm
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: Muscular dystrophy inheritance question
Replies: 7
Views: 1071
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