Definitions

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

  • noun A segment of a gene situated between exons that is removed before translation of messenger RNA and does not function in coding for protein synthesis.

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

  • noun genetics A portion of a split gene that is included in pre-RNA transcripts but is removed during RNA processing and rapidly degraded.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun sequence of a eukaryotic gene's DNA that is not translated into a protein

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[intr(agenic), occurring within a gene (intra– + genic) + –on.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From intr(agenic) +‎ -on.

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Examples

  • We start from an organism that stores its genetic information in intron-less DNA and copies this to RNA as an intermediate to generate proteins.

    A Design Framework for Evolution 2005

  • The functional SNP that the scientists found was located on what is known as intron 6, a reference to a specific location within the gene that is typically overlooked when searching for a functionally relevant mutation.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • But that could well be a real problem to solve – design me an intron depot so I can manage the traffic flow of nanoscopic drug delivery cars.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • Sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene and the hypervariable control region as well as 7th intron of the nuclear fibrinogen gene show these 2 taxa to be reciprocally monophyletic.

    Archive 2008-11-01 2008

  • Two nuclear intron regions (7th intron of the beta fibrinogen gene and thyrotropin) also were included, but showed limited genetic variation and no fixed differences between the 2 taxa.

    Archive 2008-11-01 2008

  • They are separated by 13.8% sequence divergence (uncorrected) based on the 2 mitochondrial segments, and 4.2% based on the nuclear intron sequences.

    Archive 2008-11-01 2008

  • I seem to recall reading a paper by King where she considers this possibility and did a good job of knocking it down (although the intron stuff mentioned in the ScienceDaily argument might resurrect this objection).

    An Animal Toolkit in a Single-Celled Organism 2008

  • Gene mutation can occur at many levels - from single nucleotide polymorphisms, to the introduction of stop codons and longer stretches of DNA (whole genes, even) via intron/exon shuffling.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • Examination of DNA has shown genetic variation in both coding regions and in the non-coding intron region of genes.

    Genetic variation 2008

  • Third, the dsRNA had to correspond to the mature mRNA sequence; neither intron nor promoter sequences triggered a response.

    Advanced Information: The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

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