Before we understood that DNA was the genetic code, scientists knew that bacteria transferred it between cells. In 1928, 25 years before the structure of DNA was solved, British bacteriologist ...

double-stranded DNA molecule that is distinct from a cell's chromosomal DNA. Plasmids naturally exist in bacterial cells, and they also occur in some eukaryotes. Often, the genes carried in ...

This article was originally published with the title “ The Recognition of DNA in Bacteria ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 222 No. 1 (January 1970), p. 88 doi:10.1038 ...

An INRS research team has identified a new family of enzymes that can make precise cuts in single-stranded DNA. A few years ...

Genome sequencing reveals that such horizontal transfer of DNA has been profoundly important in the history of life, and among bacteria it’s especially common, with particular implications for ...

DNA is often seen as the blueprint of life—carrying the code to govern the development and traits of an organism—but “there ...