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.
DNA and RNA are composed of nucleotides that are linked to one another in a chain by chemical bonds, called ester bonds, between the sugar base of one nucleotide and the phosphate group of the adjacent nucleotide. The sugar is the 3' end, and the phosphate is the 5' end of each nucleiotide.
Within a strand - via phosphates which link carbon 3 of deoxyribose on one nucleotide with carbon 5 on the deoxyribose of the next nucleotide producing a sugar- phosphate backbone to the chain. Across strands - via base pairing - H bonds between A & T; G & C. Bonds Between Nucleotides. The nucleotide backbone is held together with covalent bonds called phosphodiester bonds. The bond is comprised of C-O-P-O-C. The bond across the strand is comprised of hydrogen bonds. For A-T links, there are 2 H bonds and for G-C links, there are 3 H bonds.