nucleic acid

English

Etymology

nucleic + acid; named for the fact that in eukaryotes, some of the important actions of such acids are especially associated with the nucleus of the cell.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /njuːˈkliː.ɪk ˈæsɪd/, /njuːˈkleɪ.ɪk ˈæsɪd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /nuˈkleɪ.ɪk ˈæsɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

nucleic acid (countable and uncountable, plural nucleic acids)

1. (biochemistry, genetics) Any acidic, chainlike biological macromolecule consisting of multiple repeat units of phosphoric acid, sugar and purine and pyrimidine bases; they are involved in the preservation, replication and expression of hereditary information in every living cell

Derived terms

Derived terms

• nucleic acid analogue (XNA)
• bridged nucleic acid (BNA)
• deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
• glycol nucleic acid (GNA)
• locked nucleic acid (LNA)
• peptide nucleic acid (PNA)
• ribonucleic acid (RNA)
• spherical nucleic acid (SNA)
• threonucleic acid (TNA)
• threose nucleic acid (TNA)
• unlocked nucleic acid (UNA)
• xeno nucleic acid (XNA)

Translations

acidic chainlike biological macromolecule

• Basque: azido nukleiko
• Catalan: àcid nucleic m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 核酸 (hat⁶ syun¹)

  Hakka: 核酸 (het-sôn)

  Hokkien: 核酸 (hu̍t-sng, he̍k-sng)

  Mandarin: 核酸 (zh) (hésuān)

  Teochew: 核酸 (hêg⁴ seng¹)

• Czech: nukleová kyselina (cs) f
• Danish: nukleinsyre c
• Dutch: nucleïnezuur (nl) n, kernzuur n
• Esperanto: nuklea acido
• Faroese: kjarnasýra f
• Finnish: nukleiinihappo (fi), tumahappo
• French: acide nucléique (fr)
• Galician: ácido nucleico m
• German: Nukleinsäure (de) f
• Greek: νουκλεϊκό οξύ n (noukleïkó oxý)
• Hungarian: nukleinsav (hu)
• Icelandic: kjarnsýra (is) f
• Indonesian: asam nukleat (id)
• Irish: aigéad núicléasach m
• Italian: acido nucleico (it) m
• Japanese: 核酸 (ja) (かくさん, kakusan)
• Kazakh: нуклеин қышқылы (nuklein qyşqyly)
• Korean: 핵산(核酸) (ko) (haeksan)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: asîda nûkleyî f, navketirş f

• Malay: asid nukleik
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: нуклейн хүчил (nuklejn xüčil), бөөм хүчил (bööm xüčil) (China)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nukleinsyre m or f

  Nynorsk: nukleinsyre f

• Polish: kwas nukleinowy m
• Portuguese: ácido nucleico m
• Romanian: acid nucleic (ro) m
• Russian: нуклеи́новая кислота́ (ru) f (nukleínovaja kislotá)
• Slovak: nukleová kyselina f
• Spanish: ácido nucleico m
• Swedish: nukleinsyra (sv) c
• Thai: กรดนิวคลีอิก (gròt-niu-klii-ìk)
• Ukrainian: нуклеї́нова кислота́ f (nuklejínova kyslotá)
• Vietnamese: axit nucleic

See also

• DNA
• RNA
• nucleoside
• nucleotide