Deoxyribonucleoside

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A molecule consisting of a nitrogenous base attached to a sugar without any phosphate groups, forming the structural unit of nucleic acids used in genetic material
2. A chemical compound composed of a five-carbon sugar bonded to a nitrogen-containing base, lacking phosphate, serving as a precursor to nucleotides in DNA and RNA synthesis
3. An organic molecule made of a base linked to a deoxyribose sugar, which acts as a fundamental building block in the formation of DNA strands before phosphorylation

Etymology: Chemists built this name from parts, and the most surprising is "deoxy-". It signals that the sugar is ribose with one oxygen atom removed, specifically at the 2' carbon. That missing oxygen is why the molecule can link into DNA, which is built on this deoxy form of the sugar. The "ribo-" element comes from ribose, a sugar whose name Emil Fischer, the German chemist, made by rearranging the letters of "arabinose." The "nucleo-" element comes from nucleic acid, named for its presence in the nucleus of cells, from Latin "nucleus," meaning "kernel." The ending "-oside" comes from "glycoside," a sugar-based compound, and ultimately from Greek "glykys," meaning "sweet."

Synonyms: DNA nucleoside, deoxynucleoside