The ribose molecule in 3-D

The Ribose molecule - rotatable in 3 dimensions

Ribose is a pentose (5-carbon) sugar - formula C5H10O5.

It forms part of RNA, also ATP (and ADP and AMP) and NAD (and NADP).

Notice the 5 carbon atoms (grey) forming the backbone of the molecule, and the oxygen atom (red) in the ring - which is a 5 sided ring, unlike glucose.

The hydrogen atoms (white) are either attached directly to the carbons, or via oxygen as -OH groups - at an angle.

Only the carbon outside the ring has 2 single hydrogens and an OH group.

Carbon 2 (labelled as C2) has a single hydrogen and an -OH group, whereas deoxyribose has only 2 hydrogen atoms in this position.