A merodiploid is a partially diploid bacterium, which has its own

chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...

complement and a chromosome fragment introduced by

conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics *Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form *Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics *Complex conjugation, the change o ...

, transformation or transduction. It can also be defined as an essentially haploid

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

that carries a second copy of a part of its genome. The term is derived from the Greek, meros = part, and was originally used to describe both unstable partial diploidy, such as that which occurs briefly in recipients after mating with an Hfr strain (1), and the stable state, exemplified by F-prime strains (see Hfr'S And F-Primes). Over time the usage has tended to confine the term to descriptions of stable genetic states. Merodiploidy refers to the partial duplication of chromosomes in a haploid organism.

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* Bacteria Classical genetics {{bacteria-stub