allele en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Etymology
Borrowed from German Allel, shortened from Allelomorph, from English allelomorph. Ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀλλήλων (allḗlōn, “each other”) from ἄλλος (állos, “other”).
Meanings
-
One of a number of alternative forms of the same gene occupying a given position, or locus, on a chromosome.
Genes are competing directly with their alleles for survival, since their alleles in the gene pool are rivals for their slot on the chromosomes of future generations. Any gene that behaves in such a way as to increase its own survival chances in the gene pool at the expense of its alleles will, by definition, tautologously, tend to survive.
1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 46:Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| alleles | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
epiallele · homoallele · allodeterminant · allele frequency · heteroallele · allelism · isoallele · suballele · allelewise · nonallele · allelic · pseudoallele · alloallele
Relateds
allelomorph · nonallelic · biallelic · monoallelic · allelo- · multiple allelism · haploallele · diallelic
Synonyms
Translations (35)
fi alleeli (variant of a gene) · is tvenndargen (variant of a gene) · ro alelă (variant of a gene) · cmn 基因等位 (variant of a gene) · pl allel (variant of a gene) · is samsæta (variant of a gene) · cmn 等位基因 (variant of a gene) · sl alel (variant of a gene) · io alelo (variant of a gene) · ar بَدِيل وِرَاثِيّ (variant of a gene) · km អាឡែល (variant of a gene) · tl ibayo (variant of a gene) · ru алле́ль (variant of a gene) · nl allel (variant of a gene) · tl kaibayunyo (variant of a gene) · pt alelo (variant of a gene) · ga ailléil (variant of a gene) · fr allèle (variant of a gene) · cs alela (variant of a gene) · tl kaibayong-anyo (variant of a gene) · id alel (variant of a gene) · hu allél (variant of a gene) · el αλληλόμορφο γονίδιο (variant of a gene) · is genasamsæta (variant of a gene) · de Allel (variant of a gene) · ca al·lel (variant of a gene) · es alelo (variant of a gene) · ja 対立遺伝子 (variant of a gene) · it allele (variant of a gene) · pl allelomorf (variant of a gene) · sv allel (variant of a gene) · cmn 對偶基因 /对偶基因 (variant of a gene) · mi irarā (variant of a gene) · lv alēle (variant of a gene) · uk але́ль (variant of a gene)