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Holliday junction

Holliday junction noun: a junction between four strands of DNA. They are a key intermediate in many types of genetic recombination, as well as in double-strand break repair.

Noun

Holliday junction (plural Holliday junctions)

  1. A junction between four strands of DNA. They are a key intermediate in many types of genetic recombination, as well as in double-strand break repair.
    Synonyms:
    cruciform

Synonyms of Holliday junction

Forms of Holliday junction

pluralHolliday junctions

Origin of Holliday junction

Named after British molecular biologist Robin Holliday (1932–2014), who proposed it in 1964 to account for homologous recombination in Ustilago maydis.

Questions about Holliday junction

What does Holliday junction mean?
Holliday junction means a junction between four strands of DNA. They are a key intermediate in many types of genetic recombination, as well as in double-strand break repair.
What part of speech is Holliday junction?
Holliday junction is a noun.
What is the plural of Holliday junction?
The plural of Holliday junction is Holliday junctions.

Words near Holliday junction in the dictionary

  1. Hollibaugh
  2. Hollibaughs
  3. Hollick
  4. Hollicks
  5. Holliday
  6. Holliday junction
  7. Holliday junctions
  8. Hollidaysburg
  9. Hollie
  10. hollied
  11. Hollier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Holliday junction (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Holliday junction.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holliday_junction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.