Ribose

Ribose is an organic compound with the formula C₅H₁₀O₅; specifically, a monosaccharide (simple sugar) with linear form H−(C=O)−(CHOH)₄−H, which has all the hydroxyl groups on the same side in the Fischer projection.

The term may refer to either of two enantiomers: it almost always refers to -ribose, which occurs widely in nature and is discussed here; or to its synthetic mirror image -ribose, which is not found in nature and is of limited interest.

-Ribose was first reported in 1891 by Emil Fischer. It is a C'-2 carbon epimer of the sugar -arabinose (both isomers of which are named for their source, gum arabic) and ribose itself is named as a transposition of the name of arabinose.

Ribose constitutes the backbone of RNA, a biopolymer that is the basis of genetic transcription. It is related to deoxyribose, as found in DNA. Once phosphorylated, ribose can become a subunit of ATP, NADH, and several other compounds that are critical to metabolism like the secondary messengers cAMP and cGMP.