nucleotides

Cultural

The molecules that form the basic modular structure of the double helix of the DNA molecule. A nucleotide consists of three molecules — a sugar, a phosphate group, and a molecule called a base. If the double helix is a twisted ladder, the sugar and phosphates form the sides of the ladder and pairs of bases form the rungs. There are four different bases, usually abbreviated A, C, G, and T for adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine). The order of bases in DNA determines the genetic code.

Example Sentences

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Nucleotides are composed of three distinctive parts: a sugar molecule, a phosphate group and one of the four nucleobases adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine.

From Science Daily • Mar. 8, 2024

Nucleotides preceding the initiation site are given negative numbers and are designated upstream.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Nucleotides help select amino acids that combine to form proteins, an essential element for life.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2020

Nucleotides join together to form strands of DNA.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2018

Nucleotides have been put together into strands of nucleic acid a few dozen units long.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023