Word.ws English Dictionary

aptamer

US/ˈæpt.əˌmɚ/

aptamer noun: any subsequence of nucleic acid, selected from a large random sequence-pool, used to bind to a specific target molecule.

Noun

aptamer (plural aptamers)

  1. Any subsequence of nucleic acid, selected from a large random sequence-pool, used to bind to a specific target molecule.
    • Aptamers are oligomers of RNA or DNA that spontaneously fold into specific three-dimensional shapes that can bind defined targets. The specificity of the shape of the binding site arises from the base sequence of the aptamer, which determines the base-pairing pattern of the oligomer.2005, (US) National Research Council, Sensor Systems for Biological Agent Attacks, page 117
    • The use of DNA or RNA aptamers as tools in analytical chemistry is a very promising field of research because of their capabilities to bind specifically the target molecules with an affinity similar to that of antibodies.2009, Corinne Ravelet, Eric Peyrin, Chapter 10: Aptamers in Affinity Separations: Stationary Separation, Yingfu Li, Yi Lu (editors), Functional Nucleic Acids for Analytical Applications, page 271

Forms of aptamer

pluralaptamers

Origin of aptamer

From Latin aptus (“apt, proper”) + -mer (from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part, portion”); compare mero-).

Words formed from aptamer

Questions about aptamer

What does aptamer mean?
Aptamer means any subsequence of nucleic acid, selected from a large random sequence-pool, used to bind to a specific target molecule.
What part of speech is aptamer?
Aptamer is a noun.
How do you pronounce aptamer?
Aptamer is pronounced /ˈæpt.əˌmɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of aptamer?
The plural of aptamer is aptamers.

Words near aptamer in the dictionary

  1. apt.
  2. APTA
  3. aptagram
  4. aptagrams
  5. aptahistochemistry
  6. aptamer
  7. aptameric
  8. aptamers
  9. aptaprecipitation
  10. aptapurification
  11. aptasensor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aptamer (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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