2Deoxyribofuranose

2-deoxyribofuranose is the five-membered ring form (a furanose) of 2-deoxyribose, the sugar component of DNA nucleotides. Its molecular formula is C5H10O4, and in living organisms it occurs predominantly as the beta-D-2-deoxyribofuranose isomer. In nucleotides, the sugar is connected to a nucleobase at the anomeric carbon (C1') through a beta-glycosidic bond and bears a primary alcohol at C5' that becomes phosphorylated in nucleotides.

In the DNA backbone, nucleotides are linked by phosphodiester bonds between the 3' hydroxyl of one sugar and the 5' phosphate of the next, creating a directional polymer. The sugar therefore participates both in the base-sugar linkage and in the backbone via the 3' and 5' positions. The 2' position of 2-deoxyribose lacks the hydroxyl group that characterizes ribose, which reduces the susceptibility of DNA to hydrolysis and contributes to its chemical stability relative to RNA.

The furanose ring of 2-deoxyribose can adopt different puckers, notably C2'-endo and C3'-endo conformations, with the former commonly associated with B-form DNA and the latter with A-form DNA. The natural sugar in DNA is the D-series, and in nucleotides the glycosidic bond remains beta, ensuring the correct orientation of bases in the double helix. 2-deoxyribofuranose is also referred to as deoxyribose or deoxyribofuranose, and forms the core of deoxyribonucleotides such as dAMP, dCMP, dGMP, and dTMP.