Mucoid

mucoid

[′myü‚kȯid]

(biochemistry)

Any of various glycoproteins, similar to mucins but differing in solubilities and precipitation properties and found in cartilage, in the crystalline lens, and in white of egg.

Resembling mucus.

(microbiology)

Pertaining to large colonies of bacteria characterized by being moist and sticky.

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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mucoid

 

an obsolete term applied to carbohydrate-protein compounds present in a variety of biological matter, such as egg white, cornea, cartilage, vitelline membranes of amphibian and invertebrate eggs, synovia of the joints, secretions of the salivary glands, ovarian cysts, and blood plasma. In view of their chemical structure, it has been suggested that mucoids be called mucopolysaccharides or glycoproteins.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.