Ribose Vs Deoxyribose

If you have any background of organic chemistry, then you must be well versed with the comparison between ribose vs deoxyribose. However, if you do not have such a background, this comparison should be enlightening. Read on, to know more about ribose vs deoxyribose.

Ribose Explained
Ribose is such an organic compound that is written in the form of D-ribose. Ribose sugar was discovered by Emil Fisher in 1891. Ribose happens to be very important to RNA molecules, which are crucial for the process of transcription. Ribose is a subunit of many other compounds such as ATP and NADH which are again needed for the process of phosphorylation. Phosphorilation is the process by which a cell synthesizes ribose molecule into usable sugars. Human body produces ribose in the form of sugar.

Ribose Structure
The ribose is a 5 carbon structure and is very similar to that of aldose sugar. A very important aspect of ribose structure is that when it is in the form of ring, it means that it is a component of DNA molecules. Ribose functions are highly important for RNA as well as DNA. Take a look at the following ribose structure.


Deoxribose Explained
Deoxyribose is very crucial to DNA and was discovered by Phoebus Levene in 1929. Deoxyribose is also known by two other names; D-Deoxyribose and 2-Deoxyribose. It contains 5 carbon atoms and is of type monosaccharide. This deoxyribose sugar is formed by replacement of the hydroxyl group at second position in pentose sugar ribose by hydrogen. The replacement of the hydroxyl group, confirms the sift of C3'-endo to C2'-endo.

Deoxyribose Structure
When looking at this structure with naked eye, very few people can spot the difference between ribose structure and deoxyribose structure. But if you observe carefully at the second carbon atom, you will see that hydroxyl group (-OH) is missing and instead of that there is a hydrogen atom (-H). Although this may not seem a significant change to a layman, to a student of organic chemistry this is a big change. This basically means very large shift in chemical properties of the compound. Take a look at following deoxyribose structure.
There are three forms of deoxyribose that exist. They are straight-chain sugar, deoxyribofuranose five-membered ring and deoxyribopyranose six-membered ring. Being a major component of DNA, deoxyribose functions as an important constituent. (For those who want to correlate, 'De' means not, 'oxy' for hydroxyl, signifying the absence of -OH on second carbon)

Ribose are available in the market in the form of powder, tablets and many other forms. Beta-D-ribofuranose is the most common name under which ribose is sold in the market. There can be some ribose side effects, though till now, nobody is known to have severe repercussions. Certain common side effects are

• Lightheartedness
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Headaches
• Increase in blood sugar levels etc..

Deoxyribose and ribose are carbohydrate molecules that are highly important in manufacturing of ATP. The above article ribose vs deoxyribose, has covered key points for both of them. Hope that I have been able to shed some light on characteristics of both compounds and I am sure that the reader has got a very good idea of the caparison.