Plasmids are circular, double-stranded DNA molecules found outside the nucleoid (extrachomosomal DNA). They can serve a variety of functions and code for traits that may vary within a single species, since different individuals may carry different plasmids.

Most notable are the plasmids related to antibiotic resistance and plasmids required for formation of the sex pilus in conjugation. Recall that antibiotic resistance is the ability of a bacterial cell to survive in the presence of antibiotics. This ability is facilitated by antibiotic resistant proteins that are coded by certain genes found on the plasmid of a bacterial cell.

The question states that a virus infects a host cell by integrating with the host cell’s genome; therefore, the virus integrates with the chromosomes inside the nucleus of the host cell. Recall that both plasmids and episomes are extrachromosomal DNA molecules (DNA molecules found outside the chromosomes), however, only episomes can integrate with the chromosomes inside the nucleus of a host cell. This means that a virus will only be able to infect host cells if it contains an episome. Plasmids are only found in bacteria and cannot integrate with chromosomal DNA.

A plasmid is a circular DNA molecule that is found outside the bacterial nucleoid (chromosomal DNA). DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a type of nucleic acid; therefore, a plasmid must contain substances that make up a nucleic acid. Recall that nucleic acids are made up of three main molecules per monomer: a pentose sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base (adenine, thymine, uracil, guanine, or cytosine). Like the nucleoid DNA, plasmid DNA will be made of nucleotide monomers that contain a deoxyribose sugar, a phosphate, and a nitrogenous base.

Glycerol is the three carbon backbone for phospholipid and triglyceride structures. In triglycerides, a fatty acid chain is bound to each of the three glycerol carbons, whereas in phospholipids, two carbons are bound to fatty acids and the third is bound to a phosphate group. Glycerol is a chief structural component of lipid molecules, but will not be found in a nucleic acid plasmid.

Transformation is defined as the process by which bacteria can incorporate exogenous DNA from the environment into their genome via direct uptake. Transduction and conjugation are also processes by which exogenous DNA is incorporated, but involve other methods.

Prokaryotes lack a nuclear membrane, which allows translation to occur at the same time as transcription.

In eukaryotic cells the mRNA has to be exported to the cytoplasm before it can be translated. This transport requires post-transcriptional modification to protect the mRNA from degradation as it leaves the nucleus, a process unnecessary to prokaryotic cells. Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes can have cell walls and cytoplasts (cytoplasm). Prokaryotes do, in fact, generate proton gradients in order to complete cellular respiration. These gradients are created across the prokaryotic cell membrane, rather than across the mitochondrial membrane.

Transformation is the uptake of nucleic acid by competent cells, as was described in this question. Conjugation invovles cell-to-cell DNA transfer and transduction involves the use of a viral vector.

The use of bacteriophage viral vectors to transmit genetic information is transduction, an alternative form of genetic modification to transformation or conjugation. Transformation involves direct uptake of genetic material. Conjugation involves cell-to-cell transfer of DNA.