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dideoxycytosine

dideoxycytosine

9.9
A chemical used in DNA sequencing that stops chain growth to make short pieces of DNA
  • noun
  • /ˌdaɪdiːˌɒksɪˈsaɪtəʊsiːn/
  • Specialized
: dideoxicitidina
  • Students learned how dideoxycytosine stops DNA polymerase, producing fragments for sequence analysis.

Examples

  • During the Sanger run, they used fluorescent dideoxycytosine to create readable fragment lengths.

  • The technician added a small amount of dideoxycytosine to terminate synthesis at specific bases.

  • The researcher used dideoxycytosine to analyze the DNA sequence.

  • In Sanger sequencing, dideoxycytosine plays a crucial role.

  • The technician added a small amount of dideoxycytosine to terminate synthesis at specific bases.

  • During the Sanger run, they used fluorescent dideoxycytosine to create readable fragment lengths.

  • Students learned how dideoxycytosine stops DNA polymerase, producing fragments for sequence analysis.

Surface Forms

dideoxycytosine singular
dideoxycytosines plural

Morphology

dideoxycytosine = cytosine (opaque) = di + deoxy + cytosine

The 'dideoxy' modifier is a domain-specific combining form (di- + deoxy-) describing specific chemical modifications; this is not transparent to an average learner.

Etymology

Dideoxycytosine breaks into di- 'two', deoxy 'without oxygen', and cytosine 'a DNA base'. Because it is missing two oxygens, when it is added during DNA building the chain cannot grow further, so it 'stops' the chain and creates pieces that let scientists read the order of the bases.