Description

• General description: Thymine is one of the four nucleobases, along with adenine, guanine and cytosine found in deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA).[1]
• Application: Thymine has been used as a standard nitrogenous base in high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) for the quantification of bone DNA samples,[2] Raman scattering experiments[3]. It has also been used as supplement in C2C12 myoblast cells.[4] Thymine may be used to study chemical processes that affect DNA structure, such a radiation induced radical production leading to base cross-linking reactions and derivitizations. It may be used to study the parameters of hydrogen bonding kinetics and energies with other nucleobases such as adenine.Thymine is used to develop sensitive heavy metal (mercury) detectors based on coordination chemistry and nanoparticle structures.
• Biochem/physiol Actions: Thymine used in studying DNA structure byirradtaion methods leading to cross-linking reactions and derivitizations.[5] Thymine dimers are indicative of DNA damage.[6] Thymine is used with metal (mercury) to form thymine−HgII−thymine (T−HgII−T) duplexes.[7] Thymine starvation in bacteria leads to halt in DNA synthesis and is referred as thymine-less death.[8]