Adenine - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adenine is one of the nucleobases or basic molecules which form DNA and RNA. They are usually called bases in genetics.

In DNA, adenine sticks to thymine with two hydrogen bonds to help in making the nucleic acid structures stronger. In RNA, which is used in the cytoplasm for protein synthesis, adenine sticks to uracil.

Adenine was sometimes called Vitamin B4, but no longer.^[1] However, two B vitamins, niacin and riboflavin, bind with adenine to form the essential cofactors NAD and FAD respectively.

Adenine when bonded to ribose forms adenosine, part of molecules such as adenosine triphosphate.

Some think that, at the origin of life on Earth, the first adenine was formed by the polymerization (joining) of five hydrogen cyanide (HCN) molecules. This is not generally accepted.^[2]

• Computational Chemistry Wiki Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine

This short article about chemistry can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.