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pentose

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Also known as pentoses

In chemistry, a pentose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar) with five carbon atoms. The chemical formula of many pentoses is , and their molecular weight is 150.13 g/mol.

AI overview

A pentose is a simple sugar molecule made up of five carbon atoms. Pentoses are important building blocks in biology—for example, ribose is a pentose found in RNA, and deoxyribose is a pentose found in DNA.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

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8 sections
Contents
  • Classification
  • Aldopentoses
  • Ketopentoses
  • Cyclic forms
  • Deoxypentoses
  • Properties
  • Tests for pentoses
  • References

In chemistry, a pentose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar) with five carbon atoms. The chemical formula of many pentoses is , and their molecular weight is 150.13 g/mol.

Pentoses are very important in biochemistry. Ribose is a constituent of RNA, and the related molecule, deoxyribose, is a constituent of DNA. Phosphorylated pentoses are important products of the pentose phosphate pathway, most importantly ribose 5-phosphate (R5P), which is used in the synthesis of nucleotides and nucleic acids.

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