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Definition of "adenine" []

  • A purine base, C5H5N5, that is the constituent involved in base pairing with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "adenine" in a sentence
  • "The technology at the time required that DNA be cut up into tiny pieces, transferred into bacteria and then put into machines that figured out the genetic code by sorting, by length, the letters of the genetic code: A, T, G and C, also known as adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine."
  • "She had used the base pairs of the DNA --- combinations of pairs of four nucleotides called adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thy mine -- to encode her message."
  • "Hydrogen cyanide is a component of adenine, which is a basic element of DNA."