uridine

Uridine (symbol U or Urd) is a glycosylated pyrimidine analog containing uracil attached to a ribose ring (or more specifically, a ribofuranose) via a β-N1-glycosidic bond. The analog is one of the five standard nucleosides which make up nucleic acids, the others being adenosine, thymidine, cytidine and guanosine. The five nucleosides are commonly abbreviated to their symbols, U, A, dT, C, and G, respectively. However, thymidine is more commonly written as 'dT' ('d' represents 'deoxy') as it contains a 2'-deoxyribofuranose moiety rather than the ribofuranose ring found in uridine. This is because thymidine is found in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and usually not in ribonucleic acid (RNA). Conversely, uridine is found in RNA and not DNA. The remaining three nucleosides may be found in both RNA and DNA. In RNA, they would be represented as A, C and G whereas in DNA they would be represented as dA, dC and dG.

== Biosynthesis == Uridine is widely produced in nature as uridine monophosphate (uridylate) by de novo synthesis by the decarboxylation of orotidylate, which is catalyzed by orotidylate decarboxylase. The orotidylate is produced from orotate, which is combined with 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) to form orotidylate by pyrimidine phosphoribosyltransferase. PRPP is created from ribose-5-phosphate by a further phosphorylation, serving as an energetic molecule to drive the reaction forward, while orotate is generated in several steps from carbamoyl phosphate and aspartate.