heterozygous

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From hetero- +‎ -zygous.

Adjective

heterozygous (not comparable)

  1. (genetics) Of an organism: having two different alleles in a given gene.
    Synonym: (archaic or obsolete) simplex
    • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
      Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.

Derived terms

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