noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
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"These discussions have left a plethora of terms adrift: pangenes, bioblasts, plasmagenes, plastogenes, chondriogenes, cytogenes and proviruses, which have lost their original utility owing to the accretion of vague or contradictory connotations. At the risk of adding to this list, I propose plasmid as a generic term for any extrachromosomal hereditary determinant."
"The plasmid and the nucleoid are bacterial components that contain DNA."
A loop of double-stranded DNA that is separate from — and replicates independently of — the chromosomes; such loops are most commonly found in bacteria, but they are also sometimes found in archaeans and eukaryotic cells, and they are used in genetic engineering as a vector for gene transfer.
Common synonyms include: episome, plasmid dna.
The plasmid and the nucleoid are bacterial components that contain DNA.
Pronounced /ˈplæzmɪd/.
From plasma + -id, coined by American molecular biologist Joshua Lederberg in 1952.