Deoxyribose

  Deoxyribose, also known as D-Deoxyribose and 2-deoxyribose, is an aldopentose — a O₄; it was discovered in 1929 by Phoebus Levene.

stereochemistry of D-ribose and D-arabinose, D-2-deoxyribose is also D-2-deoxyarabinose.

Deoxyribofuranose is an alternative name for the ring structure of deoxyribose. This alternative name merely refers to the fact that deoxyribose has a five membered ring consisting of four carbons and an oxygen and is more a structural description than a name.

Biological importance of deoxyribose

Ribose and 2-deoxyribose derivatives have an important role in biology. Among the most important derivatives are those with phosphate groups attached at the 5 position. Mono-, di-, and triphosphate forms are important, as well as 3-5 cyclic monophosphates. There are also important diphosphate dimers called coenzymes that nucleotides.

One of the common bases is ATP, for adenosine triphosphate, is an important energy transport molecule in cells.

See Nucleic acid nomenclature for a diagram showing the numbered positions in a 5′-monophosphate nucleotide.

2-Deoxyribose and ribose nucleotides are often found in unbranched 5′-3′ polymers. In these structures, the 3′carbon of one macromolecules. The sugar-phosphate-sugar chain is called the backbone of the polymer. One end of the backbone has a free 5′phosphate, and the other end has a free 3′OH group. The backbone structure is independent of which particular bases are attached to the individual sugars.

Genetic material in earthly life often contains poly 5′-3′, 2′-deoxyribose nucleotides, in structures called chromosomes, where each monomer is one of the nucleotides deoxy- DNA for short.

DNA in chromosomes forms very long helical structures containing two molecules with the backbones running in opposite directions on the outside of the helix and held together by hydrogen bonds between complementary nucleotide bases lying between the helical backbones. The lack of the 2′ hydroxyl group in DNA appears to allow the backbone the flexibility to assume the full conformation of the long double-helix, which involves not only the basic helix, but additional coiling necessary to fit these very long molecules into the very small volume of a cell nucleus.

In contrast, very similar molecules, containing ribose instead of deoxyribose, and known generically as tRNA), where so-called hairpin structures from palindromic sequences within one molecule.

See also

• Arabinose
• Lyxose
• Ribose
• Ribulose
• Xylose
• Xylulose

References

1. ^ Merck Index, 11th Edition, 2890.