gene
noun/d͡ʒiːn/
Etymology 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.
1
Biology, Genetics, Medicine, Natural sciences, Sciences 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.
- Near-synonym: cistron (often synonymous)
- 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.2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10:
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.
Molecular biology
- Holonym: locus
- A change in a gene is reflected in the protein or RNA molecule that it codes for.
2 more examples
- A length of DNA is divided into segments called chromosomes and shorter individual units called genes.2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 7:
- 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.2025, The Economist staff, “Primer 1: Nucleic acids and proteins”, in The Economist (Biology Primers series), retrieved 18 Oct 2025:
- Derived terms
90 terms
algeny, Angelina Jolie gene, antigene, aristogene, atrogene, cene, cisgene, control gene, cream gene, cytogene, eigengene, electrochemogene, electrogene, endogene, gene-altered, gene bank, gene cassette, genechip, gene complex, gene drive, gene-engineered, gene expression, gene family, gene flow, geneflow, gene frequency, gene gun, geneless, genelet, genelike, gene-manipulated, gene-modified, gene-napper, gene pool, gene product, generich, geneset, gene silencing, gene splicing, genet, gene therapy, genetic, geneticist, genetics, gene transcription, gene transfer, gene trap, genewise, genic, genism, genome, genometastasis, genomics, gerontogene, glycogene, histocompatibility gene, homeobox gene, horizontal gene transfer, hox gene, immunogene, intergene, intragene, Jolie gene, jumping gene, lateral gene transfer, lethal gene, marker gene, metagene, minigene, morphogene, multigene, oligogene, osmogene, pangene, pharmacogene, photogene, polygene, proxygene, pseudogene, retrogene, selenogene, selfish gene, subgene, suicide gene, supergene, toll gene, transgene, unigene, virogene, X-linked gene