intercalating agent

created by BioTech
(thing) by BioTech (7.3 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Sun Feb 09 2003 at 6:54:12

A chemical substance which has a structure like a flat plane so that it can insert itself in between adjacent nucleotides of a DNA molecule. Intercalating agents are used to unwind the double helix, make the helix longer, or to induce mutations.

From the BioTech Dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/. For further information see the BioTech homenode.

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