Common biochemistry prefixes and suffixes

Memorise these if you want to have an easier time reading biology literature

Biology papers can sometimes feel impenetrable:

Source

But luckily there are a few common prefixes and suffixes that crop up again and again. Once you’ve learned this lingo, you’ll have a far easier time fighting through biology papers and wikipedia articles.

Cell structure and location

• Cyto- → cell (cytoplasm, cytoskeleton, cytokine)

• -some → discrete body/structure (ribosome, lysosome, chromosome, endosome)

• Endo- → within/inside (endocytosis, endoplasmic reticulum, endotoxin)

• Exo- → outside/outward (exocytosis, exotoxin, exonuclease)

• Peri- → around (periplasm, perinuclear)

• Trans- → across (transmembrane, transcription, translation)

• Intra- → within (intracellular, intranuclear)

• Extra- → outside (extracellular, extrachromosomal)

Enzymes and processes

• -ase → enzyme (protease, kinase, polymerase, lipase)

• -sis → process/action (mitosis, apoptosis, lysis, synthesis)

• -lysis → breaking down/splitting (hydrolysis, glycolysis, proteolysis)

• -genesis → creation/origin (biogenesis, pathogenesis, oncogenesis)

• Kinase → adds phosphate groups (protein kinase, tyrosine kinase)

• Phosphatase → removes phosphate groups

• -merase → polymerising enzyme (polymerase, telomerase)

• Enzyme names usually end in -ase with the substrate as prefix (lactase acts on lactose, protease on proteins)

Eating, destroying, killing

• Phago-/-phage → eat/engulf (phagocyte, macrophage, phagocytosis)

• Bacteriophage/phage → virus that infects bacteria (you’ll see “phage” used standalone constantly in molecular biology)

• -cidal/-cide → killing (bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal)

• -static → inhibiting growth without killing (bacteriostatic)

• -lytic → causing lysis/destruction (cytolytic, haemolytic)

Molecules and macromolecules

• Glyco-/-glycan → sugar/carbohydrate (glycoprotein, glycolysis, proteoglycan)

• Lipo-/Lip- → fat/lipid (lipoprotein, lipase, lipid bilayer)

• Proteo-/Prot- → protein (proteome, protease, proteolysis)

• Nucleo- → nucleus or nucleic acid (nucleotide, nucleosome, endonuclease)

• Poly- → many (polymer, polypeptide, polysaccharide)

• Oligo- → few (oligonucleotide, oligosaccharide)

• Mono- → one (monomer, monosaccharide)

• -ome¹ → complete set (genome = complete set of genes, proteome = complete set of proteins)

Useful general prefixes

• Bio- → life/living (biosynthesis, biomarker)

• Hetero- → different (heterozygous, heterogeneous)

• Homo- → same (homozygous, homologous)

• Iso- → equal/same (isomer, isotonic)

• Hyper- → excess/above (hyperactivation, hypertonic)

• Hypo- → deficient/below (hypotonic, hypoxia)

• Anti- → against (antibody, antigen, antibiotic)

• Pro- → before/precursor (promoter, prophage, proinflammatory)

Test yourself!

Go through the abstract from the start of this post word-by-word and try to rewrite it in simple language with the help of the terminology above. You might not get everything, but I bet you’ll get further than you expect.

Use an LLM to check your work and help you with any parts you’re still confused about.

1. Note this is different from “-some” in the cell structure section