The proper nomenclature of the bases can be a bit tricky. We hope that this page will explain the proper naming of nucleic acid compounds.
There are five bases. They are adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil.
When a base is bonded to a ribose or deoxyribose sugar, it is termed a nucleoside and the name changes as follows:
| Base name | Nucleoside name |
|---|---|
| adenine | adenosine |
| cytosine | cytidine |
| guanine | guanosine |
| thymine | thymidine |
| uracil | uridine |
When a nucleoside binds with a phosphate group(s), the resultant chemical is termed a nucleotide. It maintains the nucleoside name and adds to it the numer of phosphate groups. For example:
| Base name | Nucleoside | # of
phosphates | Resultant nucleotide name |
|---|---|---|---|
| adenine | adenosine | 1 | adenosine monophosphate |
| adenine | adenosine | 2 | adenosine diphosphate |
| adenine | adenosine | 3 | adenosine triphosphate |
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Last updated: July 9, 1998
URL:http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/pages/science/nomenclature.html
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