threose

1 9.9

A small sugar made of four carbon atoms found in living things

noun
/θriːoʊs/

Specialized

: treosa

The chemical structure of threose is crucial for its function.
threose sugar
threose, a four-carbon
four-carbon threose

Examples

Many biochemists study threoses for their role in metabolism.
The sugar threose plays a significant role in biochemistry as a four-carbon molecule.
Scientists isolated threose from a sample to study its chemical properties.
The structure of threose is important for understanding certain metabolic pathways.
In the experiment, the reaction produced both erythrose and threose as products.
Scientists have discovered that threose can help form new structures in nucleic acids.
In experiments, researchers found that threose is more stable compared to other sugars in molecular biology.

Synonyms

tetrose

vsthreose

Specialized

9.9

A sugar made of four carbon atoms

is the same sugar but noted for its role in biochemistry

Surface Forms

threose singular

threoses plural

Morphology

threose = threo + ose

The form is a technical chemical name composed of the combining form 'threo-' and the sugar suffix '-ose', neither of which is a recognizable base for an average B1 learner, so the meaning cannot be derived from familiar English components.

Etymology

Threose is made like other sugar names: it ends with -ose, which means 'sugar', just like in glucose. A helpful way to remember threose is to think of it as a very small sugar with four carbon atoms used in biochemistry, so the name tells you it is a simple sugar and points to its role in biology.