A nucleic acid molecule, or part of one, which replicates as a unit, beginning at a specific site within it.
‘Nuclei have numerous replicons origins per chromosome, which can be replicated simultaneously - so replication time is mechanistically independent of genome size and can be far less than in bacteria.’
‘This defective recovery of DNA replication suggests an inability to coordinate lesion bypass or to initiate new replicons.’
‘An important category of small replicons are the prophages, phages and other virus types.’
‘This small-scale patterning might result from different mutational biases on the leading and lagging strands, but only if replicon size in germ line cells were restricted to a few kilobases.’
‘A characteristic feature of the cellular response to ionizing radiation exposure is inhibition of replicon initiation.’