We report on the electrical conductivity measurement of silver nanowires templated on native X-bacteriophage and synthetic double-stranded DNA molecules. After an electroless chemical deposition, the metallized DNA wires have a diameter down to 15 nm and are among the thinnest metallic nanowires available to date. Two-terminal I-V measurements demonstrating various conduction behaviors are presented. DNA templated functional nanowires may, in the near future, be targeted to connect at specific locations on larger-scale circuits and represent a potential breakthrough in the self-assembly of nanometer-scale structures for electronics layout. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.