A five-carbon sugar with an aldehyde group, including important sugars like ribose and arabinose found in nature.
From 'aldo-' (aldehyde) + 'pent-' (five) + '-ose' (sugar suffix). Created in the late 1800s as chemists developed systematic ways to name and classify sugars based on their structure.
Ribose, an aldopentose, is the sugar in RNA—the molecule that helps read your DNA and make proteins! Without aldopentoses, the genetic machinery of life would fall apart.
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