cytosine
English edit
Etymology edit
After German Cytosin, equivalent to Ancient Greek κύτος (kútos) + -ine. Cytosine was discovered and named by the German biochemists Albrecht Kossel and Albert Neumann in 1894 when it was hydrolyzed from calf thymus tissues.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
cytosine (plural cytosines)
- (biochemistry) A heterocyclic base, 4-aminopyrimidin-2(1H)-one, which pairs with guanine in DNA and RNA (by means of three hydrogen bonds).
- Hypernyms: nucleobase, pyrimidine
- Coordinate terms: adenine, guanine, thymine, uracil
- 1997, Ian McEwan, Enduring Love, Vintage (1998), page 164:
- Then he found them, the substances that made up the four-letter alphabet in whose language all life is written — adenine and cytosine, guanine and thymine.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
heterocyclic base, 4-aminopyrimidin-2(1H)-one, which pairs with guanine in DNA and RNA
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