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Thymine

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thymine

[′thī‚mēn]
(biochemistry)
C5H6N2O2 A pyrimidine component of nucleic acid, first isolated from the thymus.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Thymine

 

(5-methyluracil), a natural organic compound, a pyrimidine base. Thymine takes the form of white lamellar or acicular crystals that are readily soluble in hot water but poorly soluble in organic solvents.

Thymine is present in all organisms as a constituent of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and several coenzymes of carbohydrate metabolism. It is also found in small quantities in transport ribonucleic

acid. It forms the nucleoside thymidine binding the carbohydrate deoxyribose. The synthetic analogue of thymidine, 5-bromouracil, is used in research as a powerful mutagen. By replacing thymine in the DNA chain, 5-bromouracil interferes with the correct formation of nucleotide pairs by the complementarity principle. This gives rise to errors in the replication of DNA and in the reading of the genetic code.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
On the other hand, for distilled water sample, thymine caused the highest decrease in pH values (Table 2).
Thymine (99%), vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) (90%), and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) (99%) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
The compounds thymine (T), adenine (A), uracil(U), cytosine (C)guanine (G) 99% purity were purchased from sigma Chemicals Co.
Thymine DNA glycosylase is a positive regulator of Wnt signaling in colorectal cancer.
Sequencing of a portion of exon 2 of the DSPP gene revealed a thymine to guanine transversion at nucleotide 16 associated with the development of dentin dysplasia type II.
We know -- we see again -- that from the universal genetic alphabet of adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine, endless variety has sprung and keeps springing.
The synthetic route to uracil and thymine nucleosides involves the steps illustrated in Scheme 4 and started with the preliminary preparation of the isocyanates whose quality and purity strongly determine the yields of the final compounds.
The two complimentary pairs of nucleobases, adenine with thymine and cytosine with guanosine, have long been considered thekey to DNA'sstability, replication, and capacity for information storage, with the hydrogen bonds between them playing an integral role.
The formation of excimers is important not only to understand the distinct photophysics of oligonucleotides and DNA but also to account for the intrinsic and distinct photoinduced reaction of cytosine and thymine, which form CPDs.
(6) On the other hand, the presence of thymine in nt 1858, forming a base pair with the adenine in nt 1896, makes the encapsidation signal of the pre-genomic RNA stronger.
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