See Also: DNA primers(medicine)

Trojan (iou) and DNA primers (medicine)


Trojan (iou)



Trojan noun & adjective. Orig. Troian, Troyan. ME.
[Latin Troianus, from Troia Troy: see -AN.]
A. noun.
A native or inhabitant of the ancient city of Troy in Asia Minor. ME.
a. A boon companion; a boisterous person; a person of dissolute habits. Long rare exc. as a familiar form of address to a person. Cf. GREEK noun 5. arch. L16.
b. A person of great energy, courage, or endurance. Chiefly in like a Trojan. M19.
Astronomy. A Trojan asteroid. E20.
Computing. = Trojan horse (c) below. L20.
b. adjective.
Of or pertaining to ancient Troy or its inhabitants. LME.
Trojan horse (a) Classical History a hollow wooden statue of a horse in which the Greeks are said to have concealed themselves to enter Troy; (b) fig. a person, device, etc., deliberately set to bring about an enemy's downfall or to undermine from within; (c) Computing a program that breaches the Security of a computer system, esp. by ostensibly functioning as part of a legitimate program, in order to erase, corrupt, or remove data.
Astronomy. Pertaining to or designating either of two groups of asteroids which orbit the sun at the same distance as Jupiter, at the Lagrangian points roughly 60 degrees ahead of it and behind it in the same orbit. E20.

DNA primers (medicine)


DNA primers
Short sequences (generally about 10 base pairs) of DNA that are complementary to sequences of messenger RNA and allow reverse transcriptases to start copying the adjacent sequences of mRNA. Primers are used extensively in genetic and molecular biology techniques.