ribonucleic acid
The definitions used in this glossary of terminology either have been provided by the authors of the articles, or have been extracted wholly or in part, or paraphrased from the following sources: The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine, Charles B. Clayman, MD, Medical Editor, Random House, New York, 1989; Biotechnology from A to Z, 2d Edition, William Bains, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; A Dictionary of Genetics, 6th Edition, Robert C. King and William D. Stansfield, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th and 30th Editions, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 2000, 2003; Genes VII, Benjamin Lewin, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2000; The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Volumes I and II, Stacey L. Blachford, Ed., Thomson Learning, New York, New York, 2002; The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts, 1997; Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd Edition, Bruce Alberts, et al., Garland Publishing, 1994; The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition, 1966; Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1991.
DEFINITION:
- ribonucleic acid
-
RNA; the nucleic acid in which the sugar is ribose, constituting the genetic material in the RNA viruses and playing a role in the flow of genetic information. Ribosyl moieties are linked via phosphate groups attached to their 5' and 3' hydroxyl groups to form the backbone of a linear polymer, with purine and pyrimidine bases attached to the sugars as side chains. The characteristic bases adenine (A), uracil (U), cytosine (C), and guanine (G) are specified by the presence of thymine (T), A, G, and C, respectively, in the gene being transcribed. Many RNA molecules contain bases modified by posttranscriptional processing (methylation, deamination, isomerization), and some contain secondary structure such as base pairing between self-complementary sequences, which stabilizes specific conformations.
Used in 9 Term definitions
Used in 9 Term definitions