nucleinn.
/ˈnjuːklɪɪn/, U.S. /ˈn(j)ukliən/ Biochemistry.
1. Originally: protein that is rich in phosphorus, esp. nucleoprotein or phosphoprotein. Later: spec. nucleohistone or nucleoprotamine. Also: any compound of such a type. Now historical.
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the world > life > biology > substance > cell > cell organelle or contents > [noun] > nucleus > substances or structures of
nuclein1871
nucleoplast1876
nucleoplasm1882
plastin1883
nebenkern1885
nuclear sap1887
chromosome1889
karyotin1925
chromocentre1926
Barr body1961
1871 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 24 i. 744 Miescher considers that in nuclein we have no mixture of substances..but really a substance sui generis.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) p. xxii The nucleus of a cell..consists principally of a substance termed nuclein..or chromatin.
1896 E. B. Wilson Cell vii. 242 (note) Such nucleins differ, however, from those of nuclear origin in not yielding as cleavage-products the nuclein bases (adenin, xanthin, etc.).
1927 R. J. McFall World's Meat i. 32 We have already shown that it is nuclein rather than protein which is the source of uric acid and that the nucleins are abundant in glandular organs, such as the liver, rather than in meat.
1937 A. L. Winton & K. B. Winton Struct. & Composition Foods III. iii. 284 Nucleoproteins are nucleins combined with proteins.
1982 T. M. Devlin Textbk. Biochem. xvii. 799 The four major bases were first isolated at the turn of the century from the products of extensive hydrolysis of ‘nuclein’.
1999 H. Harris Birth of Cell xvii. 169 Hertwig even went so far as to suggest that the nuclear material that acted as the vector of inherited characteristics was ‘nuclein’, a viscous material rich in phosphorus that Friedrich Miescher had extracted from nuclei in 1869.
2. = nuclein base n. at Compounds. rare. disused.
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1957 N. W. Pirie in Biochem. Soc. Symposia 14 3 Do we not need a new word to avoid the circumlocution of ‘purines and/or pyrimidines’? The old word ‘nuclein’ is not now used. Would it be useful to reintroduce it..to cover the nitrogen-containing heterocycles that have been, or will be, found in nucleic acids?
1958 Q. Rev. Biol. 33 93 I applaud Pirie's suggested resuscitation of ‘nuclein’ as a generic term for ‘purine or pyrimidine’.
1960 Science 29 Jan. 272/1 The modification of a nuclein, even to give an unnatural base, could have mutagenic effect.
Compounds
nuclein base n. [after German Nucleinbase (1893 or earlier)] now rare a purine or pyrimidine base present in nucleic acids; a nucleotide base.
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1893 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 64 i. 309 (heading) Nucleïn bases.
1896 E. B. Wilson Cell vii. 242 (note) True nucleins containing a large percentage of albumin are distinguished as nucleoproteids. They may be split into albumin and nucleic acid, the latter yielding as cleavage-products the nuclein bases.
1931 P. A. Levene & L. W. Bass Nucleic Acids vi. 126 The name ‘nucleoside’ was assigned to the substances of this group for the reason that..they contain sugar in a glucosidic union, and..the substances linked to the sugars are nuclein bases.
1984 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 311 322 The adsorption of nuclein bases is sensitively influenced by salts.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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