Adenine

Adenine chemical structure

Adenine is one of the nucleobases or basic molecules which form DNA and RNA. They are usually called bases in genetics.

Function

In DNA, adenine sticks to thymine with two hydrogen bonds to help in making the nucleic acid structures stronger. In RNA, which is used in the cytoplasm for protein synthesis, adenine sticks to uracil.

History

Adenine was sometimes called Vitamin B4, but no longer. However, two B vitamins, niacin and riboflavin, bind with adenine to form the essential cofactors NAD and FAD respectively.

Adenine when bonded to ribose forms adenosine, part of molecules such as adenosine triphosphate.

Some think that, at the origin of life on Earth, the first adenine was formed by the polymerization (joining) of five hydrogen cyanide (HCN) molecules. This is not generally accepted.

Adenine Media

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  Adenine structure, with standard numbering of positions in red.

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  Base pair Adenine Thymine (AT)

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  base pair Adenine Uracil (AU)

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  Structure of base pair Adenine Dihydrouracil (AD)

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  base pair Adenine Pseudouridine (AΨ)

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  Structure of adenosine

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  Structure of Deoxyadenosine

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  Adenine on Crick and Watson's DNA molecular model, 1953. The picture is shown upside down compared to most modern drawings of adenine, such as those used in this article.

Other websites

• Computational Chemistry Wiki Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine