5-fluoroorotic acid
5-fluoroorotic acid
A pyrimidinemonocarboxylic that is orotic acid which is substituted by fluorine at position 5. It is used in yeast molecular genetics to detect expression of the URA3 gene, which encodes orotine-5'-monophosphate dicarboxylase. A yeast with and active URA3 gene converts 5-fluoroorotic acid to fluorodeoxyuridine, which is toxic to cells.