Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of the alternative forms of a gene or other homologous DNA sequence.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun one of two or more alternative forms of a gene that can have the same place on homologous chromosomes and are responsible for alternative traits.
- noun either of a pair of Mendelian characters that may occur in an organism as a consequence of variation at one gene locus.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun genetics One of a number of alternative forms of the same
gene occupying a given position on achromosome .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (genetics) either of a pair (or series) of alternative forms of a gene that can occupy the same locus on a particular chromosome and that control the same character
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Evolution is about one thing: The explanation for the changes in allele frequencies over time.
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The allele could originate by mutation of an allele for brown fur and the environment caused selection which caused a change in allele frequency.
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The allele could originate by mutation of an allele for brown fur and the environment caused selection which caused a change in allele frequency.
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The mechanisms whereby genomes are reduced or expanded are often not the standard "neo-Darwinian processes", ie changes in allele frequency.
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The mechanisms whereby genomes are reduced or expanded are often not the standard "neo-Darwinian processes", ie changes in allele frequency.
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Mesk, when you suggest that an allele is conserved if it has 0. 0001% advantage, you are comparing apples to oranges in this case, are you not?
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Mesk, when you suggest that an allele is conserved if it has 0. 0001% advantage, you are comparing apples to oranges in this case, are you not?
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If you did it with 5,000 mutants and 5,000 wild-types (enough to detect a selective advantage as small as 0.005%) and saw changes in allele frequency compatible with drift, people would definitely stand up and take notice.
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With interesting applications here for diagnosis, therapy models and possibly even pharmaceuticals, the authors concluded that "the absence of this protective bias in short-allele carriers is likely to be linked with the heightened susceptibility to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety that has been reported in this group."
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(An allele is any of the variants of a gene that takes more than one form; such genes are known as polymorphisms.
punchcard commented on the word allele
allele:
The different forms of a given gene that an organism may possess. For example, in humans, one allele of the eye-color gene produces green eyes and another allele of the eye-color gene produces brown eyes.
September 27, 2008