Oligomer

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Oligomer

In chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
, an oligomer consists of a limited number of monomer

Monomer

A monomer is a small molecule that may become Chemistry chemical bonding to other monomers to form a polymer....
units (??????, or oligos, is Greek for "a few"), in contrast to a polymer

Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties....
which, at least in principle, consists of an unbounded number of monomers. Many oils are oligomeric, such as liquid paraffin

Liquid paraffin

Liquid paraffin may refer to:* Liquid paraffin * In chemistry, a mixture of heavier alkanes, see: Paraffin#Liquid_paraffin...
. Plasticizers are oligomeric ester

Ester

An ester is an often Aroma compound organic chemistry or partially organic compound formed by the reaction between an acid and an alcohol or aromatic alcohol with the elimination of water....
s widely used to soften thermoplastics such as PVC

PVC

Polyvinyl chloride is a plastic.PVC may also refer to:*Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military honor*Peripheral venous catheter*Permanent virtual circuit, a term used in telecommunications and computer networks...
. They may be made from monomer

Monomer

A monomer is a small molecule that may become Chemistry chemical bonding to other monomers to form a polymer....
s by linking them together, or by separation from the higher fractions of crude oil.

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Encyclopedia

In chemistry

Chemistry

Monomer

A monomer is a small molecule that may become Chemistry chemical bonding to other monomers to form a polymer....
units (??????, or oligos, is Greek for "a few"), in contrast to a polymer

Polymer

Liquid paraffin

Liquid paraffin may refer to:* Liquid paraffin * In chemistry, a mixture of heavier alkanes, see: Paraffin#Liquid_paraffin...
. Plasticizers are oligomeric ester

Ester

PVC

Monomer

Polybutene

A liquid oligomer, polybutene is widely used as a plasticizer for high molecular weight polymers, such as polyethylene. It is not to be confused with the high molecular weight polymer polybutene-1....
is an oligomeric oil used to make putty

PuTTY

PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the Secure Shell, Telnet, rlogin, and Transmission Control Protocol computing protocols....
.

In biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
, the term oligomer is used for short, single stranded nucleic acid

Nucleic acid

A nucleic acid is a macromolecule composed of chains of monomeric nucleotides. In biochemistry these molecules carry genetic information or form structures within Cell ....
fragments, such as DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
or RNA

RNA

Ribonucleic acid is a type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nucleobase, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate....
, or similar fragments of analogs of nucleic acids such as peptide nucleic acid or Morpholino

Morpholino

In molecular biology, a Morpholino is a molecule used to modify gene expression. Morpholino oligomers are an antisense technology used to block access of other molecules to specific sequences within nucleic acid....
s. Such oligos are used in hybridization experiments (bound to glass slides or nylon

Nylon

Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides and first produced on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont....
membranes), as probes for in situ hybridization

In situ hybridization

In situ hybridization is a type of Hybridisation that uses a labeled complementary DNA or RNA strand to localize a specific DNA or RNA sequence in a portion or section of tissue , or, if the tissue is small enough , in the entire tissue ....
or in antisense experiments such as gene knockdown

Gene knockdown

Gene knockdown refers to techniques by which the gene expression of one or more of an organism's genes is reduced, either through genetic engineering or by treatment with a reagent such as a short DNA or RNA oligonucleotide with a sequence complementary to either an mRNA transcript or a gene....
s. It can also refer to a protein complex

Protein complex

A multiprotein complex is a group of two or more proteins. Protein complexes are a form of quaternary structure. Proteins in a protein complex are linked by non-covalent protein-protein interactions, and different protein complexes have different degrees of stability over time....
made of two or more subunits. In this case, a complex made of several different protein

Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
subunits is called a hetero-oligomer. When only one type of protein

Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
subunit is used in the complex, it is called homo-oligomer.

In oligomerization a chemical process only converts monomers to a finite degree of polymerization

Degree of polymerization

The degree of polymerization, or DP, is the number of repeat units in an average polymer chain at time t in a polymerization reaction . The length is in monomer units....
. The actual figure is a matter of debate, often a value between 10 and 100.

When an oligomer forms as a result of chain transfer

Chain transfer

Chain transfer is a polymerization reaction by which the activity of a growing polymer chain is transferred to another molecule. P. + XR' ------> PX + R'....
the oligomer is called a telomer and the process telomerization
Telomerization

Telomerization is a Radical polymerization Chemical reaction where a chain transfer limits the size of the oligomer molecule Product ?the telomer....
. A telomere

Telomere

A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of chromosomes, which protects the end of the chromosome from destruction. Its name is derived from the Greek nouns telos "end" and mer?s "part"....
is a region of highly repetitive DNA at the end of a linear chromosome.

Oligomer

See also

External links