🌞 A tanning chemical 🧪 A simple sugar

dihydroxyacetone

1 9.9

A simple sugar with three carbon atoms used in biology research and in cell metabolism

noun
/ˌdaɪhɪˌdrɒksiˈæsɪtoʊn/

Specialized

: dihidroxiacetona

In biochemical research, scientists often use dihydroxyacetone as a key component to study metabolic processes.

Examples

So here's our old friend dihydroxyacetone phosphate from glycolysis.
And so as we talked about before, here's our old friend dihydroxyacetone phosphate from glycolysis.
The presence of dihydroxyacetone indicates that the organism can perform certain metabolic functions.
As a simple sugar, dihydroxyacetone plays an important role in various biochemical pathways.

Synonyms

ketotriose

vsdihydroxyacetone

Specialized

9.9

A simple sugar with three carbon atoms and a ketone on the middle carbon, for example dihydroxyacetone

is used in research to highlight its role in metabolism

Surface Forms

dihydroxyacetone singular

dihydroxyacetones plural

Morphology

dihydroxyacetone = hydroxyacetone (opaque) = di + hydroxy + acetone

The formation uses specialized chemical combining forms (di- and hydroxy-) that are not transparent to an average B1 learner without domain knowledge.

Etymology

Dihydroxyacetone breaks into di- 'two', hydroxy 'water group', and acetone 'a small chemical'. The name describes a small sugar with three carbon atoms and two 'hydroxy' groups, which is why it is called a simple three-carbon sugar used in cells and research.