guanine

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Quechua wanubor. Spanish guanobor. English guano Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnusder. Old French -inbor. Middle English -in English -ine English guanine From guano + -ine. Guanine was named by the German chemist Julius Bodo Unger in 1846 who isolated it from guano.

1. A substance first obtained from guano; it is a nucleic base and pairs with cytosine in DNA and RNA (by means of three hydrogen bonds).

   “Then he found them, the substances that made up the four-letter alphabet in whose language all life is written — adenine and cytosine, guanine and thymine.”