octamer

2 definitions found

octamer - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  oligomer \o*lig"o*mer\, n. (Chem.)
     A molecule composed of a small number of linked monomer
     units; a short polymer; -- compounds called oligomers have
     less than one hundred monomer units and usually less than
     thirty. Oligomers of increasing length are called dimer,
     trimer, tetramer, pentamer, hexamer, heptamer,
     octamer, nonamer, decamer, etc. In colloquial
     laboratory jargon, they may also be referred to as
     nine-mer, ten-mer, eleven-mer, twelve-mer, etc.,
     especially for oligomers of greater than eight units.
     [PJC]

  octamer \oc"ta*mer\ ([o^]k"t[u^]*m[~e]r), n. [Octa- + Gr. me`ros
     part.] (Chem.)
     A molecule composed of eight monomer units bound to each
     other, usually in a linear array; as, an octamer formed from
     eight nucleotides is called an octanucleotide.
     [PJC]
  
     Note: An example of an octapeptide might be represented using
           the standard abbreviations for the component amino
           acids, e.g.: met-ala-ser-glu-lys-ala-val-gly
           An octanucleotide might be represented using the
           standard single-letter abbreviations for the component
           mononucleotides, e.g.: ATGCATGC.
           [PJC]