| genetic homeostasis | The tendency of a population to reach a point of genetic equilibrium and resist changes. Origin: Gr. Stasis = stoppage (09 Oct 1997) |
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| physiological homeostasis | bernard-Cannon homeostasis |
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| waddingtonian homeostasis | The set of processes by which imbalances and other defects in ontogeny are corrected before development is completed. Synonym: ontogenic homeostasis, waddingtonian homeostasis. Origin: homeo-+ G. Rheos, stream, current (05 Mar 2000) |
| homeostasis | <physiology> A tendency to stability in the normal body states (internal environment) of the organism. It is achieved by a system of control mechanisms activated by negative feedback, for example a high level of carbon dioxide in extracellular fluid triggers increased pulmonary ventilation, which in turn causes a decrease in carbon dioxide concentration. Origin: Gr. Stasis = stoppage (04 Nov 1997) |
| ontogenic homeostasis | The set of processes by which imbalances and other defects in ontogeny are corrected before development is completed. Synonym: ontogenic homeostasis, waddingtonian homeostasis. Origin: homeo-+ G. Rheos, stream, current (05 Mar 2000) |
| Lerner homeostasis | The restorative mechanisms that tend to correct perturbations in the genetic composition of a population. Synonym: genetic homeostasis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| genetic | <biology> Pertaining to reproduction or to birth or origin. (07 May 1998) |
| genetic amplification | A process for producing an increase in pertinent genetic material, particularly for increasing the proportion of plasmid DNA to that of bacterial DNA. Includes the production of extrachromosomal copies of the genes for RNA. (05 Mar 2000) |
| genetic assimilation | <genetics> A situation in which a characteristic that is normally expressed only in certain environmental situations becomes fixed in a population so that it no longer requires environmental factors to be expressed. (07 May 1998) |
| genetic association | The occurrence together in a population, more often than can be readily explained by chance, of two or more traits of which at least one is known to be genetic. (05 Mar 2000) |
| genetic block | <biochemistry, molecular biology> An obstruction in a biochemical pathway caused by a mutation that has crippled production of an enzyme critical to the pathway. (07 May 1998) |
| genetic burden | The genetic debt due to harmful mutation but as yet undischarged. (In a large population of fixed size every mutation with diminished genetic fitness will eventually become extinct and depending on the details of inheritance and phenotype must be paid for by a fixed number of genetic deaths per mutation, the genetic debt.) (05 Mar 2000) |
| genetic carrier | An unaffected heterozygote bearing a usually harmful recessive gene, a cancer that bears a dominant but latent age-dependent trait to have offspring with unbalanced karyotypes. (05 Mar 2000) |
| genetic code | <molecular biology> Relationship between the sequence of bases in nucleic acid and the order of amino acids in the polypeptide synthesised from it. A sequence of three nucleic acid bases (a triplet) acts as a codeword (codon) for one amino acid. (18 Nov 1997) |
| genetic colonisation | <molecular biology> The process of a parasite (such as a virus) inserting genes into a host's genome which cause the host cell to synthesise products that are only useful to the parasite. (07 May 1998) |
| genetic complement | <biology, genetics> The set of chromosomes contained within any one particular cell. (07 May 1998) |