Cistron (Noun)
Meaning
(genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors".
Classification
Nouns denoting body parts.
Examples
- A cistron is a segment of DNA that can be transcribed into a single unit of RNA and then translated into a polypeptide chain.
- The discovery of the cistron model helped scientists understand that a single gene could code for a polypeptide that comprised multiple subunits.
- In genetics, a cistron often contains introns that are removed through RNA splicing, before the mature mRNA molecule is translated.
- The term cistron was used historically to describe a segment of DNA that could encode a complete polypeptide.
- Each cistron serves as an operational unit of heredity that encodes for a single polypeptide product and often includes regulatory sequences outside the actual coding region.