Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology pp 1–2Cite as

Xanthine

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 25 Accesses

Synonyms

3,7-Dihydropurine-2,6-dione; 1H-purine-2,6-dione

Chemical Formula

C5H4N4O2

Definition

Xanthine is one of the purine bases, which is widely distributed in the terrestrial biological system, though it is not included among the canonical five nucleic acid bases. Figure 1 shows a molecular structure of xanthine. Its molecular weight is 152.11. Its nucleoside is xanthosine. It is formed by hydrolysis of guanine or is enzymatically converted from guanine by guanine deaminase. It has been reported that some purine bases and pyrimidine bases including canonical nucleic acid bases existed in extracts from carbonaceous chondrites, but the detected bases have not been the same. Among various purines and pyrimidines, only xanthine was reported to be detected as a major base in Murchison meteorite both by GC/C/MS (Martins et al. 2008) and LC/MS (Callahan et al. 2011).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Molecular structure of xanthine

Full size image

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References and Further Reading

  • Callahan MP, Smith KE, Cleaves HJ II, Ruzicka J, Stern JC, Glavine DP, House CH, Dworkin JP (2011) Carbonaceous meteorites contain a wide range of extraterrestrial nucleobases. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:13995–13998

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Martins Z, Botta O, Fogel ML, Sephton MA, Glavin DP, Watson JS, Dworkin JP, Schwartz AW, Ehrenfreund P (2008) Extraterrestrial nucleobases in the Murchison meteorite. Earth Planet Sci Lett 270:130–136

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan

    Kensei Kobayashi

Authors
  1. Kensei Kobayashi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kensei Kobayashi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  2. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    William M. Irvine

  3. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  6. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Kobayashi, K. (2019). Xanthine. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5352-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5352-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation