having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; slothful: an indolent person. 2. Pathology. causing little or no pain; inactive or relatively benign: an indolent ulcer that is not painful and is slow to heal.
A polynucleotide is a nucleic acid molecule consisting of a long chain of nucleotides. Nucleotides in a polynucleotide molecule are held together by a bond between the phosphate group of one nucleotide and the sugar of a second nucleotide, which is called a phosphodiester bond.
At each point of juncture within a polynucleotide, the 5' end of one nucleotide attaches to the 3' end of the adjacent nucleotide through a connection called a phosphodiester bond (Figure 3). It is this alternating sugar-phosphate arrangement that forms the backbone of a DNA molecule.