Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cistron

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: cistron
IPA

9

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

1

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.

Example Sentences

"Holonym: locus"
"Near-synonym: gene (often synonymous)"
"The butterfly mimicry cluster is a good example. As the cistrons leave one body and enter the next, as they board sperm or egg for the journey into the next generation, they are likely to find that the little vessel contains their close neighbours of the previous voyage, old shipmates with whom they sailed on the long odyssey from the bodies of distant ancestors."

Etymology

Coined by American molecular biologist Seymour Benzer in 1957, from cis + trans + -on. Named in the context of using a "cis-trans comparison" for identifying " […] whether two mutants, having similar defects, are indeed defective in the same way."

Inflected Forms

cistrons (plural)

Derived Forms

bicistron cistrome cistronic polycistron

Frequently Paired Words

replicon

Synonyms

gene factor

Questions

What does cistron mean?: The unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.
Where does cistron come from?: Coined by American molecular biologist Seymour Benzer in 1957, from cis + trans + -on. Named in the context of using a "cis-trans comparison" for identifying " […] whether two mutants, having similar defects, are indeed defective in the same way."

How to pronounce cistron

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