Replicon

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Food Biotechnology

A chromosomal region containing the DNA sequences necessary to initiate DNA replication processes.

Susan Allender-Hagedorn and Charles Hagedorn — An Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology Annotated Dictionary

The portion of a DNA molecule which can be replicated from a single origin of replication. Plasmids and the chromosomes of bacteria, phages and other viruses usually have a single origin of replication so that their entire genome constitutes a single replicon. Eukaryotic chromosomes have multiple origins of replication, so comprise several replicons. Also used to describe a DNA molecule capable of independent replication.

UN Food and Agriculture Organization — Glossary of Biotechnology for Food and Agriculture