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Thymine

Thymine is an organic base of the pyrimidine family. It is actually the first pyrimidine that was successfully purified by scientists from an all natural source (a calf thymus and the spleen of a cow) way back in 1893 – 94. In 1900, the now accepted structure of a thymine molecule was published. Several investigators were then able to confirm the validity of the molecular structure when they synthesized the compound during 1901 to 1910.
Thymine forms a derivative called thymidine when it is combined with a sugar called deoxyribose in a glycosidic linkage. Thymidine, which is a nucleoside, can be phosphorylated with any of three phosphoric acid groups. The product of these mix are three nucleotides namely, TMP (thymidine monophosphate), TDP (thymidine diphosphate), and TTP (thymidine triphosphate).

Thymidine is a very important substance as it is involved in the biosynthesis of DNA and in the preservation as well as transfer of genetic information.

One of the more common mutations of DNA actually involves two adjacent thymines or cytosine. When these are exposed to ultraviolet light it could result in the formation of pyrimidine dimers that could cause kinks in the DNA molecule that would limit normal functions.

Web Resources On Thymine

The Chemical Structure of Thymine
Definition of Thymine

Book Resources On Thymine

Design, synthesis and characterization of N3alkylated cissyn thymine dimers by Yimin, Wang
Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fourth Edition by Bruce Alberts et al.

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