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Medical Definition of One-carbon fragment
1. The formyl group or the methyl group that takes part in transformylation or transmethylation reactions; by means of these reactions, a group containing a single carbon atom is added to a compound being biosynthesised, adding a methyl group (as in thymidine formation), adding a hydroxymethyl group (as in serine biosynthesis), or closing a ring (as in purine formation). (05 Mar 2000)