Library / English Dictionary

RIBONUCLEIC ACID

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(biochemistry) a long linear polymer of nucleotides found in the nucleus but mainly in the cytoplasm of a cell where it is associated with microsomes; it transmits genetic information from DNA to the cytoplasm and controls certain chemical processes in the cell

Example:

ribonucleic acid is the genetic material of some viruses

Synonyms:

ribonucleic acid; RNA

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("ribonucleic acid" is a kind of...):

polymer (a naturally occurring or synthetic compound consisting of large molecules made up of a linked series of repeated simple monomers)

Meronyms (parts of "ribonucleic acid"):

nucleic acid ((biochemistry) any of various macromolecules composed of nucleotide chains that are vital constituents of all living cells)

Meronyms (substance of "ribonucleic acid"):

ribose (a pentose sugar important as a component of ribonucleic acid)

A; adenine ((biochemistry) purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA)

C; cytosine (a base found in DNA and RNA and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with guanine)

G; guanine (a purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with cytosine)

U; uracil (a base containing nitrogen that is found in RNA (but not in DNA) and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with adenine)

Domain category:

biochemistry (the organic chemistry of compounds and processes occurring in organisms; the effort to understand biology within the context of chemistry)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ribonucleic acid"):

informational RNA; messenger RNA; mRNA; template RNA (the template for protein synthesis; the form of RNA that carries information from DNA in the nucleus to the ribosome sites of protein synthesis in the cell)

nRNA; nuclear RNA (ribonucleic acid found in the nucleolus of the cell)

acceptor RNA; soluble RNA; transfer RNA; tRNA (RNA molecules present in the cell (in at least 20 varieties, each variety capable of combining with a specific amino acid) that attach the correct amino acid to the protein chain that is being synthesized at the ribosome of the cell (according to directions coded in the mRNA))

Credits

 Context examples: 

They extracted ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequences from each sample and converted them into stable complementary DNA (cDNA), which was processed using a technique called real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which amplifies the signal of genes activated by the multiplication of cDNA molecules.

(New method to classify brain tumour in children, SciDev.Net)