A genetic palindrome refers to a sequence of nucleotides within a strand of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or RNA (ribonucleic acid) that contains the same series of nitrogenous bases regardless from which direction the strand is analyzed. Akin to a language palindrome--wherein a word or phrase is spelled the same left-to-right as right-to-left (e.g. the word RADAR or the phrase "able was I ere I saw elba")--with genetic palindromes it does not matter whether the nucleic acid strand is read starting from the 3' (three prime) end or the 5' (five prime) end of the strand.

Related to the direction of transcription by RNA polymerase, DNA strands have upstream and downstream terminus defined by differing chemical groups at each end. The ends of each strand of DNA or RNA are termed the 5' (phosphate bound to the 5' position carbon) and 3' (phosphate bound to the 3'...