Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!bionet!jbkramer From: jbkramer@NET.BIO.NET (Jack Kramer) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: looking for the right word Message-ID: Date: 1 Jun 89 20:32:25 GMT References: <3790@phri.UUCP> Reply-To: jbkramer@NET.BIO.NET.UUCP (Jack Kramer) Organization: BIONET Natl. Computer Resource for Mol. Biologists Lines: 22 In article <3790@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: > > I'm at a loss for a word. The generalization of first, second, >third, ... is nth. The generalization of primary, secondary, tertiary, ... >is n-ary. But, what is the generalization of mononucleotide, dinucleotide, >trinucleotide, tertranucleotide, ....? N-nucleotide doesn't sound right, >nor does nmer, which is more the generalizaion of monomer, dimer, trimer, >etc. Any suggestions? >-- >Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute >455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 >{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu >"The connector is the network" I think most are used to "oligonucleotide" for any small fragment. Chemically I think good old polymer or polynucleotide is correct. I have also heard the term "multimer" used this way, but this could cause a lot of confusion since multimer normally means multiple- polymer. Jack Kramer