| pentose | <chemistry> Sugar (monosaccharide) with five carbon atoms. Include ribose and deoxyribose of nucleic acids and many others such as the aldoses arabinose and xylose and the ketoses ribulose and xylulose. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| pentose monophosphate shunt | <biochemistry> A pathway of hexose oxidation in which glucose-6-phosphate undergoes two successive oxidations by NADP, the final one being an oxidative decarboxylation to form a pentose phosphate. Diverges from this when glucose-6-phosphate is oxidized to ribose 5 phosphate by the enzyme glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase. This step reduces NADP to NADPH, generating a source of reducing power in cells for use in reductive biosyntheses. In plants, part of the pathway functions in the formation of hexoses from carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. Also important as source of pentoses, for example for nucleic acid biosynthesis. This pathway is the main metabolic pathway in neutrophils, congenital deficiency in the pathway produces sensitivity to infection. Alternative metabolic route to Embden Meyerhof pathway for breakdown of glucose. (18 Nov 1997) |
| pentose phosphate cycle | <biochemistry> A pathway of hexose oxidation in which glucose-6-phosphate undergoes two successive oxidations by NADP, the final one being an oxidative decarboxylation to form a pentose phosphate. Diverges from this when glucose-6-phosphate is oxidized to ribose 5 phosphate by the enzyme glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase. This step reduces NADP to NADPH, generating a source of reducing power in cells for use in reductive biosyntheses. In plants, part of the pathway functions in the formation of hexoses from carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. Also important as source of pentoses, for example for nucleic acid biosynthesis. This pathway is the main metabolic pathway in neutrophils, congenital deficiency in the pathway produces sensitivity to infection. Alternative metabolic route to Embden Meyerhof pathway for breakdown of glucose. (18 Nov 1997) |
| pentose phosphate pathway | <biochemistry> A pathway of hexose oxidation in which glucose-6-phosphate undergoes two successive oxidations by NADP, the final one being an oxidative decarboxylation to form a pentose phosphate. Diverges from this when glucose-6-phosphate is oxidized to ribose 5 phosphate by the enzyme glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase. This step reduces NADP to NADPH, generating a source of reducing power in cells for use in reductive biosyntheses. In plants, part of the pathway functions in the formation of hexoses from carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. Also important as source of pentoses, for example for nucleic acid biosynthesis. This pathway is the main metabolic pathway in neutrophils, congenital deficiency in the pathway produces sensitivity to infection. Alternative metabolic route to Embden Meyerhof pathway for breakdown of glucose. (18 Nov 1997) |
| regulatory sequences, nucleic acid | DNA sequences involved in regulating the expression of other genes. (12 Dec 1998) |
| repetitive sequences, nucleic acid | Nucleotide sequences present in multiple copies in the genome. They include direct, inverted, tandem, and terminal repeat sequences and the alu family repeat (named for the restriction endonuclease cleavage enzyme alu I). (12 Dec 1998) |
| minus-strand nucleic acid | <molecular biology> An RNA or DNA strand which has the opposite sense of (would be complementary to) the mRNA of a virus. (12 Jan 1998) |
| sequence homology, nucleic acid | The sequential correspondence of nucleotide triplets in a nucleic acid molecule which permits nucleic acid hybridization. Sequence homology is important in the study of mechanisms of oncogenesis and also as an indication of the evolutionary relatedness of different organisms. The concept includes viral homology. (12 Dec 1998) |
| nucleic acid | <biochemistry, molecular biology> Linear polymers of nucleotides, linked by 3', 5' phosphodiester linkages. In DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, the sugar group is deoxyribose and the bases of the nucleotides adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine. RNA, ribonucleic acid, has ribose as the sugar and uracil replaces thymine. DNA functions as a stable repository of genetic information in the form of base sequence. RNA has a similar function in some viruses but more usually serves as an informational intermediate (mRNA), a transporter of amino acids (tRNA), in a structural capacity or, in some newly discovered instances, as an enzyme. The spontaneous loss of the amino groups of cytosine (yielding uracil), methyl cytosine (yielding thymine) or of adenine (yielding hypoxanthine). It can be argued that the presence of thymine in DNA in place of the uracil of RNA stabilises genetic information against this lesion, since repair enzymes would restore the GU base pair to GC. (18 Nov 1997) |
| nucleic acid base | A purine or pyrimidine; found in naturally occurring nucleic acids such as DNA. (05 Mar 2000) |
| nucleic acid conformation | The characteristic 3-dimensional shape of a nucleic acid or polynucleotide. Its secondary structure is due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between nucleotides, resulting in base pairing and areas with alpha helix structure. (12 Dec 1998) |
| nucleic acid denaturation | Disorganization of secondary structures of nucleic acids through cleavage of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic linkages. Denatured DNA appears to be a single-stranded flexible structure. The effects of denaturation on RNA are similar though less pronounced and largely reversible. (12 Dec 1998) |
| nucleic acid heteroduplexes | Double-stranded nucleic acid molecules (DNA-DNA or DNA-RNA) which contain regions of nucleotide mismatches (non-complementary). In vivo, these heteroduplexes can result from mutation or genetic recombination; in vitro, they are formed by nucleic acid hybridization. Electron microscopic analysis of the resulting heteroduplexes facilitates the mapping of regions of base sequence homology of nucleic acids. (12 Dec 1998) |
| nucleic acid hybridization | Widely used technique which exploits the ability of complementary sequences in single-stranded dnas or rnas to pair with each other to form a double helix. Hybridization can take place between two complimentary DNA sequences, between a single-stranded DNA and a complementary RNA, or between two RNA sequences. The technique is used to detect and isolate specific sequences, measure homology, or define other characteristics of one or both strands. (kendrew, encyclopedia of molecular biology, 1994, p503; dorlands, 28th ed, p781) (12 Dec 1998) |
| nucleic acid precursors | Use for nucleic acid precursors in general or for which there is no specific heading. (12 Dec 1998) |