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Glite Dictionary
purine

purine

1 7.6
A chemical building block of DNA and RNA, for example adenine and guanine
  • noun
  • /ˈpjʊərɪn/
  • Specialized
: purina
  • Soon the purine and pyrimidine rings nearly filled the screen.
  • purines and pyrimidines

Examples

  • In humans, the purine bases in the nucleic acids are metabolized to insoluble uric acid.

  • And in the end, we need both purines and pyrimidines.

  • What are things that are high in purines that we should be paying attention to?

  • What are things that are high in purines that we should be paying attention to?

  • The high pressures of ice formation not only gave up amino acids, but also the purine adenine as well.

    Blog text (6)

  • Purines are definitely related to gout, despite what these ardent Paleo hardheads say.

    Blog text (9)

  • Uric acid is the end product of the breakdown of a group of compounds called purines.

  • Adenine and guanine serve as the purines in both RNA and DNA.

Surface Forms

purine singular
purines plural

Morphology

purine = pur + ine

A technical chemical name formed from a non-productive combining form plus the chemical suffix '-ine', so learners cannot derive the biological meaning from common English components.

Etymology

Purine was named in the 19th century from chemicals found in urine, so a helpful way to remember it is to connect purine with 'uric acid'. Purine makes the building parts of DNA and RNA (like adenine and guanine), and when purines break down they form 'uric acid', which explains why too much can cause gout.