deoxyribonucleic acid, desoxyribonucleic acid, DNA

a nucleic acid found in the nucleus of a cell and consisting of a polymer formed from nucleotides and shaped like a double helix; associated with the transmission of genetic information; "DNA is the king of molecules"

• operon — a segment of DNA containing adjacent genes including structural genes and an operator gene and a regulatory gene
• complementary DNA, cDNA — single-stranded DNA that is complementary to messenger RNA or DNA that has been synthesized from messenger RNA by reverse transcriptase
• exon, coding DNA — sequence of a gene's DNA that transcribes into protein structures
• intron — sequence of a eukaryotic gene's DNA that is not translated into a protein
• junk DNA — stretches of DNA that do not code for genes
• recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid, recombinant DNA — genetically engineered DNA made by recombining fragments of DNA from different organisms
• sticky end — an end of DNA in which one strand of the double helix extends a few units beyond the other
• transposon, jumping gene — a segment of DNA that can become integrated at many different sites along a chromosome (especially a segment of bacterial DNA that can be translocated as a whole)

• nucleic acid — any of various macromolecules that are vital constituents of all living cells

• adenine — (biochemistry) purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA
• cytosine — a base found in DNA and RNA and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with guanine
• guanine — a purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with cytosine
• thymine — a base found in DNA (but not in RNA) and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with adenine

• base pair — one of the pairs of chemical bases joined by hydrogen bonds that connect the complementary strands of a DNA molecule or of an RNA molecule that has two strands; the base pairs are adenine with thymine and guanine with cytosine in DNA and adenine with uracil and guanine with cytosine in RNA