Structure and Properties
In its composition, deoxythymidine is a nucleoside composed of deoxyribose (a pentose sugar) joined to the pyrimidine base thymine.
Deoxythymidine can be phosphorylated with one, two or three phosphoric acid groups, creating respectively dTMP, dTDP or dTTP (deoxythymidine mono- di- or triphosphate).
It exists in solid form as small white crystals or white crystalline powder, has a molecular weight of 242.229 u, and has a melting point of 185 °C. The stability of deoxythymidine under standard temperature and pressure (STP) is very high.
Deoxythymidine is non-toxic and as part of one of the four nucleotides in DNA it is a naturally occurring compound that exists in all living organisms and DNA viruses. RNA has uridine (uracil joined to ribose) instead. Uracil is chemically very similar to thymine, the latter being 5-methyluracil. Since thymine nucleotides are precursors of DNA, not RNA, the prefix "deoxy" is often left out, i.e., deoxythymidine is often just called thymidine.
Thymidine is listed as a chemical teratogen.
Read more about this topic: Thymidine
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