depyrimidination

English

Noun

depyrimidination (uncountable)

1. (chemistry, biology) A process in which the chemical bond linking a pyrimidine (cytosine or thymine) to a deoxyribose sugar breaks spontaneously. It occurs at a lower rate compared to depurination with only 500 cytosine and thymine bases lost per cell per day in a typical mammalian cell.