uracil

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uracil

(yo͝or`əsĭl), organic base of the pyrimidinepyrimidine
, type of organic base found in certain coenzymes and in the nucleic acids of plant and animal tissue. The three major pyrimidines of almost universal distribution in living systems are cytosine, thymine, and uracil.
..... Click the link for more information. family. It was isolated from herring sperm and also produced in a laboratory in 1900–1901. When combined with the sugar ribose in a glycosidic linkage, uracil forms a derivative called uridine (a nucleoside), which in turn can be phosphorylated with from one to three phosphoric acid groups, yielding respectively the three nucleotidesnucleotide
, organic substance that serves as a monomer in forming nucleic acids. Nucleotides consist of either a purine or a pyrimidine base, a ribose or deoxyribose, and a phosphate group. Adenosine triphosphate serves as the principle energy carrier for the cell's reactions.
..... Click the link for more information. UMP (uridine monophosphate), UDP (uridine diphosphate), and UTP (uridine triphosphate). The analogous nucleosides and nucleotides formed from uridine and deoxyribose occur only very rarely in living systems; such is not the case with the other pyrimidines. The nucleotide derivatives of uracil perform important functions in cellular metabolism, particularly in carbohydrate metabolism; UTP acts as a coenzymecoenzyme
, any one of a group of relatively small organic molecules required for the catalytic function of certain enzymes. A coenzyme may either be attached by covalent bonds to a particular enzyme or exist freely in solution, but in either case it participates intimately in
..... Click the link for more information. in the biosynthesis of sucrose in plants, lactose and glycogen in mammals, and chitin in insects. It can also readily donate one of its phosphate groups to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to form adenosine triphosphateadenosine triphosphate
(ATP) , organic compound composed of adenine, the sugar ribose, and three phosphate groups. ATP serves as the major energy source within the cell to drive a number of biological processes such as photosynthesis, muscle contraction, and the synthesis of
..... Click the link for more information. (ATP), an extremely important intermediate in the transfer of chemical energy in living cells. Since the uracil nucleotides contain only ribose and not deoxyribose, UTP is the source of uridine only in ribonucleic acid (RNA); there is no uridine in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Its involvement in the biosynthesis of RNA demonstrates that uracil is important in the translation of genetic information (see nucleic acidnucleic acid,
any of a group of organic substances found in the chromosomes of living cells and viruses that play a central role in the storage and replication of hereditary information and in the expression of this information through protein synthesis.
..... Click the link for more information. ). A few laboratory derivatives of uracil have been designed as experimental antimetabolites (see metabolitemetabolite,
organic compound that is a starting material in, an intermediate in, or an end product of metabolism. Starting materials are substances, usually small and of simple structure, absorbed by the organism as food. These include the vitamins and essential amino acids.
..... Click the link for more information. ) for use in cancer chemotherapy.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Uracil

(also 2, 6-dioxypyrimidine), an organic substance and pyrimidine. Uracil occurs either as a white powder or as crystalline needles; it is soluble in hot water, has a molecular weight of 112, and is amphoteric and tautomeric:

Uracil was discovered in 1900, when it was detected in the products resulting from the breakdown of yeast nucleic acids. It is present in all living cells, forming part of many nucleotides and ribonucleic acids.

uracil

[′yu̇r·ə‚sil]

(biochemistry)

C₄H₄N₂O₂ A pyrimidine base important as a component of ribonucleic acid.

References in periodicals archive ?

Taking into account the potency and extensive applicability of BU, this study was organized to develop a new and convenient pathway for the synthesis of 5-bromo uracil by the use of solvent-free, solid-supported microwave-assisted technology.

Solid-Supported Synthesis of N-alkylated Derivatives of 5-bromo pyrimidine-2, 4-dione and Study of their Cytotoxic Effect

From these results, we can see that all samples contained all five active ingredients, but their contents are different in samples fermented with different strains; for example, for the Jinshuibao capsules (adenosine > uridine > guanosine > adenine > uracil), Jinshuibao tablets (adenosine > uridine > guanosine > adenine > uracil), and Bailing capsule (adenosine > guanosine > uridine > uracil > adenine).

Analysis of the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Fingerprints and Quantitative Analysis of Multicomponents by Single Marker of Products of Fermented Cordyceps sinensis

Uracil is recognized by hydrogen-bonding interactions with the backbone of residues 199 and 231 and via two water molecules to the backbone of residues 199, 233, and 261 (Figure 9) [62].

Current Progress in the Structural and Biochemical Characterization of Proteins Involved in the Assembly of Lipopolysaccharide

As the cytosines at the EGFR c.2369 position were highly but not fully methylated, thymine and uracil lesions resulting from 5-mC and cytosine deamination were examined as the sources of artifactual T790M mutations.

Reducing Artifactual EGFR T790M Mutations in DNA from Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Tissue by Use of Thymine-DNA Glycosylase

For uridine production, the uridine content reached 5.04 mg/g with 28.6% increase over the control when the added concentration of ribose was 2 mg/mL (Figure 6), which was lower than the maximum content of uridine with 10.83 mg/g when the added concentration of uracil was 0.3 mg/mL (Figure 7), indicating that adding uracil was much better than ribose for uridine production.

Enhancement of Nucleoside Production in Hirsutella sinensis Based on Biosynthetic Pathway Analysis

3.1 Absorbance of Tryptophan and Uracil Components of SRM 2082

Development of NIST Standard Reference Material 2082, a Pathlength Standard for Measurements in the Ultraviolet Spectrum

The resulting uracil prototroph transformants that exhibit blue colonies can be selected on uracil-free plates.

Development of the Multiple Gene Knockout System with One-Step PCR in Thermoacidophilic Crenarchaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius

The ingredients were composed of NaCl, L-Arg, L-Gly, L-His, L-Leu, L-Met, L-Phe, L-Thr, L-Ser, L-Cys, L-Asn, L-Glu, L-Iso, L-Lys, L-Try, pyridoxal, pantothenic acid, niacin, riboflavin, folic acid, MgS[O.sub.4] x 7[H.sup.2]O, MnS[O.sub.4] x 4[H.sub.2]O, K[H.sub.2]P[O.sub.4], [K.sub.2]HP[O.sub.4], C[H.sub.3]COONa, adenine, uracil, and glucose, which were the macro- and micronutrients needed by biosynthesis of Enterocin Y31.

Development of a Chemically Defined Medium for Better Yield and Purification of Enterocin Y31 from Enterococcus faecium Y31

TLC of the solid (dissolved in water, eluted with a 70: 40: 10 by volume mixture of ethyl acetate- acetone-water and visualized by UV) showed the presence of uracil as a major component (Subbaraman et al,1980).

SOLVENT-FREE RAPID MICROWAVE SYNTHESIS AND ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY OF 2,4-(I H, 3H) PYRIMIDINEDIONE

The thermal cycler protocol consisted of a 2-min period at 50[degrees]C (uracil removal for PCR carryover protection), a 10-min period at 95[degrees]C (denaturation of native DNA), and 40 cycles of 15 s at 95[degrees]C (denaturation of PCR product) and 1 min at 60[degrees]C (annealing/extension).

Phosphodiesterase 4B is essential for lipopolysaccharide-induced CC chemokine ligand 3 production in mouse macrophages

Genome sequencing can look for the presence of uracil in DNA.

Genome sequencing: hopes and challenges of a new technology

Under conditions of folate deficiency, Dump accumulates causing breaks in DNA strand as a result of base removal by glycosylases following uracil misincorporation into DNA in place of thymine leading to MN formation.