pleiotropy

1 9.9

A single gene that affects two or more different traits in a living thing

noun
/ˈpliːəˌtrɒpi/

Specialized

: pleiotropía

The concept of pleiotropy explains how one gene can affect unrelated characteristics, such as flower color and leaf shape.

And we call this this issue antagonistic pleiotropy.

Examples

In genetics, pleiotropy occurs when a single gene influences traits like height and color in an organism.
So pleiotropy just means you have different characteristics that are influenced by the same gene or set of genes.
His theory of pleiotropy posited that reproduction and aging were genetically linked.

Academic text (2002)
Correlation between two characters in an ordinary population should be the composite of the effects of selection, gene linkage, and pleiotropy (Sakai and Suzuki, 1964).

Academic text (2013)
Research on pleiotropy shows how variations in a single gene can lead to multiple physical traits in an organism.

Synonyms

pleiotropism

vspleiotropy

Specialized

9.9

One gene causes two or more different traits in a living thing

has identical meaning but is a different term for the same phenomenon

Surface Forms

pleiotropy singular

pleiotropies plural

Morphology

pleiotropy = pleiotropic (opaque) = pleio + trop + y

The formation uses Greek combining forms (pleio- + trop-) and an academic noun ending, which is not transparent to average learners.

Etymology

Pleiotropy comes from Greek parts pleio- meaning 'more' and -tropy from tropos meaning 'turn' or 'way'. So, pleiotropy is a useful image: one gene can work in 'many ways' and so cause several different traits.