title: Chemistry and structure of nucleic acids of bacteriophages. Many forms of nucleic acids of bacteriophages show the ways that information is stored and reproduced.
abstract: The nucleic acids of bacteriophages are characterized by a surprising multiformity. RNA and DNA may occur, the latter in single- or double-stranded form, circular or linear, with or without breaks or single-strand ends. Terminal redundancy may exist and the populations of linear phages may be uniform or randomly permuted. A double-stranded circular DNA does not occur in extracellular bacteriophage, but is often if not always formed after infection of the bacterial host. Phage DNA may be glucosylated or methylated to a certain extent, and the glucose and methyl residues may influence the stability of the DNA inside the host.
mesh_terms: D001435:Bacteriophages; D003090:Coliphages; D004261:DNA Replication; D004279:DNA, Viral; D005815:Genetic Code; D008967:Molecular Biology; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases; D012367:RNA, Viral; D012762:Shigella dysenteriae; D014161:Transduction, Genetic
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases