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Glite Dictionary
arabinose

arabinose

1 8.4
A simple plant sugar that scientists use in labs to turn genes on
  • noun
  • /əˈræbɪnoʊs/
  • Specialized
: arabinosa
  • Arabinose is commonly used in laboratory research to study plant metabolism.
  • sugar arabinose

Examples

  • In biotechnology, arabinose serves as an important sugar component for various experiments.

  • The pretreated fiber contains sugars, mainly arabinose, xylose, and some glucose.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The structural analysis of polysaccharides often includes arabinose as a key sugar in plant-derived samples.

Surface Forms

arabinose singular
arabinoses plural

Morphology

arabinose = arabin (opaque) = arabin + ose

The element 'arabin' is a specialized combining form (not a standalone English word) and '-ose' is a technical chemical suffix for sugars, so learners cannot reliably infer the meaning from the parts.

Etymology

The word arabinose comes from the name arabic in 'gum arabic', the plant gum where this sugar was first found. The ending -ose means 'sugar', as in glucose, so arabinose is basically the 'sugar from gum arabic' and that is why it names a plant sugar used in science.