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Uracil (/ ˈ j ʊər ə s ɪ l /) (symbol U or Ura) is one of the four nucleotide bases in the nucleic acid RNA. The others are adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). In RNA, uracil binds to adenine via two hydrogen bonds. In DNA, the uracil nucleobase is replaced by thymine (T). Uracil is a demethylated form of thymine.
Thymine and uracil are distinguished by merely the presence or absence of a methyl group on the fifth carbon (C5) of these heterocyclic six-membered rings. [2] [page needed] In addition, some viruses have aminoadenine (Z) instead of adenine. It differs in having an extra amine group, creating a more stable bond to thymine. [3]
As its alternate name (5-methyluracil) suggests, thymine may be derived by methylation of uracil at the 5th carbon. In RNA, thymine is replaced with uracil in most cases. In DNA, thymine (T) binds to adenine (A) via two hydrogen bonds, thereby stabilizing the nucleic acid structures.
The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides as they are composed of simpler monomeric units called nucleotides. [2] [3] Each nucleotide is composed of one of four nitrogen-containing nucleobases (cytosine [C], guanine [G], adenine [A] or thymine [T]), a sugar called deoxyribose, and a phosphate group.
A well-documented example is the formation of T-Hg-T, which involves two deprotonated thymine nucleobases that are brought together by Hg 2+ and forms a connected metal-base pair. [37] This motif does not accommodate stacked Hg 2+ in a duplex due to an intrastrand hairpin formation process that is favored over duplex formation. [38]
The bases found in RNA and DNA are: adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil. Thymine occurs only in DNA and uracil only in RNA. Using amino acids and protein synthesis, [2] the specific sequence in DNA of these nucleobase-pairs helps to keep and send coded instructions as genes. In RNA, base-pair sequencing helps to make new proteins ...
In the A-U Hoogsteen base pair, the adenine is rotated 180° about the glycosidic bond, resulting in an alternative hydrogen bonding scheme which has one hydrogen bond in common with the Watson-Crick base pair (adenine N6 and thymine N4), while the other hydrogen bond, instead of occurring between adenine N1 and thymine N3 as in the Watson ...
Instead of thymidine, RNA contains uridine (uracil joined to ribose). Uracil is chemically very similar to thymine, which is also known as 5-methyluracil. Since thymine nucleotides are precursors of DNA (but not RNA), the prefix "deoxy" is often left out, i.e., deoxythymidine is often just called thymidine. Thymidine is listed as a chemical ...