Adenovirus-2 DNA contains an inverted terminal repetition

Denaturation and renaturation of the adenovirus-2 chromosome (a duplex rod) generates single-stranded circles of unit length. These circles can be opened into linear DNA molecules by digestion with exonuclease III, indicating that hydrogen bonding between the two ends of an adenovirus strand is responsible for maintaining the rod in a circular state.The formation of adenovirus single-stranded circles, and their sensitivity to exonuclease III, indicate that the mature adenovirus-2 DNA molecule contains an inverted terminal repetition. That is, the base sequence at one end of the molecule is inverted and appears again at the other end of the molecule. This is the first example of such a structure, and its function is unknown.