A chemical reaction where an ethyl group is added to a molecule, commonly used in making pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals.
From ethylate + -tion (suffix creating abstract nouns from verbs); named to describe the process of adding ethyl groups.
Ethylation is one of the most important reactions in synthetic biology—scientists can control which genes turn on or off by adding methyl and ethyl groups to DNA, which is actually reversible, meaning your cells are constantly 'editing' themselves!
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