DNA Metabolism in Plants

DNA occupies a central position among all biological macromolecules because it is the actual physical repository of an organism's genetic information, and its double-helical structure is remarkably well suited for that storage role. The umbrella term DNA metabolism covers the complete set of processes by which that stored information is faithfully copied, protected and reshuffled: replication, the production of new copies of the DNA molecule; repair, the correction of damage that DNA continually sustains; and recombination, the rearrangement of genetic information within and between DNA molecules (already covered in the linkage and crossing-over sections a …