1. (in informal use) a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring: "proteins coded directly by genes"
▪ (in technical use) a distinct sequence of nucleotides forming part of a chromosome, the order of which determines the order of monomers in a polypeptide or nucleic acid molecule which a cell (or virus) may synthesize.
Word Originearly 20th century: from German Gen, from Pangen, a supposed ultimate unit of heredity (from Greek pan- ‘all’ + genos ‘race, kind, offspring’).
