gene

Forms

1.A theoretical unit of heredity of living organisms which may take several values and (in principle) predetermines a precise trait of an organism's form (phenotype), such as hair color.
- The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.
2.A segment of DNA or RNA from a cell's or an organism's genome, that may take several forms and thus parameterizes a phenomenon, such as (often) the structure of a protein.
- A change in a gene is reflected in the protein or RNA molecule that it codes for.
- A length of DNA is divided into segments called chromosomes and shorter individual units called genes.
- One way to define a gene (there are many, and they are not all equivalent) is as the bit of DNA that contains the information needed to make a specific protein or a functional RNA molecule.

Uncommon· #2036

From German Gen, from Ancient Greek γενεά (geneá, “generation, descent”), from the aorist infinitive of γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “to come into being”).

Coined by Danish botanist Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen in 1909, in a German-language publication, from the last syllable of pangene.