allele

See also: allèle

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Allel, shortened from Allelomorph, from English allelomorph. Ultimately from the Ancient Greek prefix ἀλληλ- (allēl-) from ἄλλος (állos, “other”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.liː.l/
Audio (UK) (file)
(US) IPA^(key): /əˈ.liː.l/
Rhymes: -iːl

Noun

allele (plural alleles)

(genetics) One of a number of alternative forms of the same gene occupying a given position, or locus, on a chromosome.
- 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 46:
  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.
- 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
  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.

Synonyms

allelomorph

Derived terms

allele frequency
allelic
allodeterminant
suballele

Related terms

allelomorph
biallelic
diallelic
haploallele
monoallelic
multiple allelism
nonallelic

Translations

variant of a gene

Catalan: al·lel (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 等位基因 (zh) (děngwèi jīyīn), 對偶基因／对偶基因 (duì'ǒu jīyīn), 基因等位 (jīyīn děngwèi)
Czech: alela (cs) f
Dutch: allel (nl) n
Finnish: alleeli (fi)
French: allèle (fr)
German: Allel (de) n
Greek: αλληλόμορφο γονίδιο n (allilómorfo gonídio)
Hungarian: allél (hu)
Icelandic: samsæta f, genasamsæta f, tvenndargen n
Ido: alelo (io)
Indonesian: alel (id)
Irish: ailléil f
Italian: allele (it) m
Khmer: អាឡែល (ʼaalael)
Latvian: alēle f
Maori: irarā
Polish: allel (pl), allelomorf
Portuguese: alelo
Romanian: alelă (ro) f
Russian: алле́ль (ru) f (allélʹ)
Slovene: alel m
Spanish: alelo (es) m
Swedish: allel (sv) c
Tagalog: ibayo (tl), kaibayong-anyo, kaibayunyo
Ukrainian: але́ль f (alélʹ)

German

Pronunciation

Audio (file)

Adjective

allele

inflection of allel:
1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
2. strong nominative/accusative plural
3. weak nominative all-gender singular
4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Noun

allele m (plural alleli)

(genetics) allele