cistron

English

Etymology

Coined by American molecular biologist Seymour Benzer in 1957, from cis +‎ trans +‎ -on. Named in the context of using a "cis-trans comparison" for identifying " […] whether two mutants, having similar defects, are indeed defective in the same way."[1]

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

cistron (plural cistrons)

  1. The unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.
    Holonym: locus
    Near-synonym: gene (often synonymous)
    • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 41:
      The butterfly mimicry cluster is a good example. As the cistrons leave one body and enter the next, as they board sperm or egg for the journey into the next generation, they are likely to find that the little vessel contains their close neighbours of the previous voyage, old shipmates with whom they sailed on the long odyssey from the bodies of distant ancestors.

Derived terms

See also

References

  1. ^ Seymour Benzer (1957) “The elementary units of heredity”, in McElroy WD, Glass B, editors, The Chemical Basis of Heredity‎[1], Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins Press, page 71

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation

  • Audio:(file)

Noun

cistron m (plural cistrons)

  1. cistron
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.