Dictionary

cistron en · NOUN

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."

Meanings

1. The unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.
   • Near-synonym: gene (often synonymous)
   • Holonym: locus
   • 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. 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 41:

Forms

Deriveds

polycistron · cistrome · bicistron · cistronic

Relateds

replicon

Synonyms

gene