base-pair
verb
\ ˈbās-ˌper
\
\
base-paired;
base-pairing;
base-pairs
Definition of base-pair
(Entry 1 of 2)
: to participate in formation of a base pair
adenine base-pairs with thymine
base pair
nounDefinition of base pair (Entry 2 of 2)
: one of the pairs of nucleotide bases on complementary strands of nucleic acid that consist of a purine on one strand joined to a pyrimidine on the other strand by hydrogen bonds holding together the two strands much like the rungs of a ladder and that include adenine linked to thymine in DNA or to uracil in RNA and guanine linked to cytosine in both DNA and RNA
Examples of base-pair in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
The filament houses the virus's RNA, a string of genetic material about 19,000 base pairs long that encodes seven proteins. — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, "What is the Ebola virus, and can it be stopped?," 9 Apr. 2019 In the case of Hologic’s M. gen test, Getman said, the area used for detection was only about 80 nucleic acid base pairs long out of a larger string of more than 500,000. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "New test from San Diego’s Hologic is first in U.S. to help detect new STD threat," 2 Aug. 2019 The prevailing wisdom said that DNA should have been too riddled with base pair errors to say anything of value about the past. — Quanta Magazine, "Ancient DNA Yields Snapshots of Vanished Ecosystems," 29 May 2019 Their codons are not as stable, in part because the artificial X-Y base pair tends to mutate to a natural one relatively quickly. — Quanta Magazine, "Is a Bigger Genetic Code Better? Get Ready to Find Out," 2 Jan. 2018 Revising the Genetic Dictionary A research team at the Scripps Research Institute in California has now brought us closest to achieving these aims by designing bacterial cells that can replicate, transcribe and translate an artificial DNA base pair. — Quanta Magazine, "Is a Bigger Genetic Code Better? Get Ready to Find Out," 2 Jan. 2018 Indeed, all the beautiful permutations of the human form — the differences between the tallest and shortest, the brown-eyed and the green-eyed — are explained by just a tiny fraction of those base pairs. — Brian Resnick, Vox, "How scientists are trying to predict your future with your genes," 23 Aug. 2018 The basic unit of DNA is the base pair, one of the rungs on the twisted ladder that makes up the double helix. — Cathleen O'grady, Ars Technica, "DNA data from Africans reveals sequences that we’d missed," 24 Nov. 2018 In the second twin, some of her cells will have a four base pair deletion, which will cause a short tail of 10 random amino acids. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Scientists, ethicists slam decisions behind gene-edited twins," 30 Nov. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'base-pair.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for base-pair
base pair
noun
\ -ˈpa(ə)r, -ˈpe(ə)r
\
\
Medical Definition of base pair
(Entry 1 of 2)
: one of the pairs of nucleotide bases on complementary strands of nucleic acid that consist of a purine on one strand joined to a pyrimidine on the other strand by hydrogen bonds holding together the two strands much like the rungs of a ladder and that include adenine linked to thymine in DNA or to uracil in RNA and guanine linked to cytosine in both DNA and RNA
base pair
intransitive verbMedical Definition of base pair (Entry 2 of 2)
: to participate in formation of a base pair
adenine base pairs with thymine