Any process in which a new genotype is formed by reassortment of genes resulting in gene combinations different from those that were present in the parents. In eukaryotes genetic recombination can occur by chromosome assortment, intrachromosomal recombination, or nonreciprocal interchromosomal recombination. Interchromosomal recombination occurs by crossing over. In bacteria it may occur by genetic transformation, conjugation, transduction, or F-duction.

The cellular metabolic process in which a cell duplicates one or more molecules of DNA. DNA replication begins when specific sequences, known as origins of replication, are recognized and bound by initiation proteins, and ends when the original DNA molecule has been completely duplicated and the copies topologically separated. The unit of replication usually corresponds to the genome of the cell, an organelle, or a virus. The template for replication can either be an existing DNA molecule or RNA.

A complex for the transport of metabolites into and out of the cell, typically comprised of four domains; two membrane-associated domains and two ATP-binding domains at the intracellular face of the membrane, that form a central pore through the plasma membrane. Each of the four core domains may be encoded as a separate polypeptide or the domains can be fused in any one of a number of ways into multidomain polypeptides. In Bacteria and Archaebacteria, ABC transporters also include substrate binding proteins to bind substrate external to the cytoplasm and deliver it to the transporter.