deoxyribosecontaining

Deoxyribose-containing is a biochemical descriptor used for molecules that incorporate 2'-deoxyribose, a five-carbon sugar, as part of their structure. The most prominent examples are deoxyribonucleosides and deoxyribonucleotides, which together form DNA, the genetic material of many organisms.

The key feature of 2'-deoxyribose is the absence of a hydroxyl group at the 2' position (hence the name “deoxy”). This small difference from ribose, the sugar in RNA, has significant chemical and biological implications. In DNA, deoxyribose links to a phosphate group to create nucleotides, which assemble into long phosphodiester backbones that store genetic information in the form of sequences of bases. Deoxyribonucleotides, especially the deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs), serve as the building blocks for DNA synthesis.

Examples of deoxyribose-containing molecules include deoxyribonucleosides such as deoxyadenosine, deoxyguanosine, deoxycytidine, and thymidine (in DNA, thymine is paired with deoxyribose). The corresponding deoxyribonucleotides are dAMP, dGMP, dCMP, and dTMP, or their triphosphate forms dATP, dGTP, dCTP, and dTTP used during DNA replication.

Biosynthesis of deoxyribose-containing compounds proceeds from ribonucleotides via ribonucleotide reductase, which reduces the 2' ribose to 2'-deoxyribose. Salvage pathways recycle bases and nucleosides to maintain cellular pools of deoxyribonucleotides.

In summary, deoxyribose-containing molecules are central to DNA structure and metabolism, distinguishing DNA chemistry from RNA chemistry through the presence of the 2'-deoxyribose sugar.