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Adenine (symbol A or Ade) is a purine nucleotide base that is found in DNA, RNA, and ATP. Usually a white crystalline subtance. The shape of adenine is complementary and pairs to either thymine in DNA or uracil in RNA. In cells adenine, as an independent molecule, is rare. It is almost always covalent bond to become a part of a larger biomolecule.
Adenine has a central role in cellular respiration. It is part of adenosine triphosphate which provides the energy that drives and supports most activities in living cells, such as protein synthesis, chemical synthesis, muscle contraction, and nerve impulse propagation. In respiration it also participates as part of the cofactors nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, flavin adenine dinucleotide, and Coenzyme A.
It is also part of adenosine, adenosine monophosphate, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, adenosine diphosphate, and S-adenosylmethionine.
Patented August 20, 1968, the current recognized method of industrial-scale production of adenine involves heating formamide under 120 °C.
| A-T-Base-pair (DNA) | A-U-Base-pair (RNA) | A-D-Base-pair (RNA) | A-Ψ-Base-pair (RNA) |
Adenine forms adenosine, a nucleoside, when attached to ribose, and deoxyadenosine when attached to deoxyribose. It forms adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a nucleoside triphosphate, when three are added to adenosine. Adenosine triphosphate is used in cellular metabolism as one of the basic methods of transferring chemical energy between chemical reactions. ATP is thus a derivative of adenine, adenosine, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, and adenosine diphosphate.
| Adenosine, A | Deoxyadenosine, dA |
It was named in 1885 by Albrecht Kossel after Greek language ἀδήν aden "gland", in reference to the pancreas, from which Kossel's sample had been extracted.
Adenine can be prepared from ammonia and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in aqueous solution, a process that has implications for the origin of life on Earth.
On August 8, 2011, a report, based on NASA studies with meteorites found on Earth, was published suggesting building blocks of DNA and RNA (adenine, guanine and related organic molecules) may have been formed extraterrestrially in outer space. In 2011, physicists reported that adenine has an "unexpectedly variable range of ionization energies along its reaction pathways" which suggested that "understanding experimental data on how adenine survives exposure to UV light is much more complicated than previously thought"; these findings have implications for spectroscopy measurements of heterocyclic compounds, according to one report.
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