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Is Adenine and Adenosine the same substance?

Oct 18，2024

No. Adenine is the name of a purine base and one of the basic components of the nucleotides that make up DNA or RNA. In contrast, adenosine is the larger nucleotide molecule that consists of adenine, ribose or deoxyribose, and one or more phosphate groups. Nucleotides are made up of nitrogenous bases (adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine in DNA and adenine, guanine, uracil, and cytosine in RNA), a phosphate group, and a sugar molecule (deoxyribose in DNA and ribose in RNA) DNA and RNA are polymers made up of many nucleotides. Adenine (A) is bound to either thymine (T) or uracil (U). It is an important base because it is used not only in DNA and RNA but also in the energy carrier molecule ATP, the cofactor flavin adenine dinucleotide and the cofactor nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD).

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Adenine forms adenosine, a nucleoside, when attached to ribose and deoxyadenosine when attached to deoxyribose. When three phosphate groups are added to adenosine, it forms adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a nucleoside triphosphate.

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