Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The frequency, under given environmental conditions, with which a specific phenotype is expressed by those individuals with a specific genotype.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as penetrancy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being penetrant; power of entering or piercing; penetrating power or quality.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality or state of being penetrant; power of entering or piercing; penetrating power.
  • noun genetics The proportion of individuals carrying a particular variation of a gene that also express an associated trait

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

penetrate +‎ -ance

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Examples

  • And seagrasses are especially sensitive to sediment since they need light for photosynthesis suspended sediments make the water less clear, reducing light penetrance.

    John F. Bruno: Impacts of the Japanese Tsunami on Ocean Life John F. Bruno 2011

  • And seagrasses are especially sensitive to sediment since they need light for photosynthesis suspended sediments make the water less clear, reducing light penetrance.

    John F. Bruno: Impacts of the Japanese Tsunami on Ocean Life John F. Bruno 2011

  • The genetic data also show that the penetrance of Native Americans is very low in today's Central and Southern populations.

    New World Apocalypse, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • When antitobacco campaigns lose their effectiveness or penetrance—as has recently happened among teens in America or in Asia—smoking often returns like an old plague.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • “The penetrance rate is amazing, absolutely astonishing,” said Agus, perhaps because some people prefer the comfort of using a service sanctioned and managed by their employer rather than entrusting their credit-card details to an unknown vendor.

    The $1,000 Genome Kevin Davies 2010

  • This, the penetrance of the BRCA gene in these families was only presumed, not measured.

    BRCA Mutations and Familial Breast Cancer Risks aka TBTAM 2008

  • But we still don't know the true prevalence or penetrance of this gene in the general population, and what it really means to be a carrier.

    BRCA Mutations and Familial Breast Cancer Risks aka TBTAM 2008

  • Both inherited (autosomal dominant and recessive with variable levels of penetrance) and sporadic forms of uncombable hair syndrome have been described, both being characterized by scalp hair that is impossible to comb due to the haphazard arrangement of the hair bundles.

    Boing Boing 2008

  • When antitobacco campaigns lose their effectiveness or penetrance—as has recently happened among teens in America or in Asia—smoking often returns like an old plague.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • When antitobacco campaigns lose their effectiveness or penetrance—as has recently happened among teens in America or in Asia—smoking often returns like an old plague.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

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