See Also: Herbal medicine (botanical medicine, herbology, phytomedicine)(health)
Medicine Lodge Memorial Hospital- Medicine Lodge(health)
Circular DNA(medicine)
circular(dictionary)
DNA, circular(medicine)
circular saw(dictionary)
circular bandage(medicine)
circular dichroism(medicine)
circular folds(medicine)
Offering Circular(money)

DNA, circular (medicine)


DNA, circular


Any of the covalently closed DNA molecules found in bacteria, many viruses, mitochondria, plastids, and plasmids. Small, polydisperse circular DNA's have also been observed in a number of eukaryotic organisms and are suggested to have homology with chromosomal DNA and the capacity to be inserted into, and excised from, chromosomal DNA. It is a fragment of DNA formed by a process of looping out and deletion, containing a constant region of the mu heavy chain and the 3'-part of the mu switch region. Circular DNA is a normal product of rearrangement among gene segments encoding the variable regions of immunoglobulin light and heavy chains, as well as the T-cell receptor.