| gena | <zoology> The cheek; the feathered side of the under mandible of a bird. The part of the head to which the jaws of an insect are attached. Origin: L, the cheek. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| genal | Relating to the gena, or cheek. (05 Mar 2000) |
| genal glands | Numerous racemose, mucous, or serous glands in the submucous tissue of the cheeks. Synonym: glandulae buccales, genal glands. (05 Mar 2000) |
| genbank | A database of nucleic acid and protein sequences at the National Library of Medicine in the United States of America, compiled from international sources. It has sequence data in 13 different categories: primate, mammal, rodent, vertebrate, invertebrate, organelle, RNA, bacteria, plant, virus, bacteriophage, synthetic, and other. It is similar to the European Molecular Biology Lab gene bank in Germany. WWW: Genebank (09 Oct 1997) |
| gender | 1. Kind; sort. "One gender of herbs." 2. Sex, male or female. 3. A classification of nouns, primarily according to sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed quality associated with sex. "Gender is a grammatical distinction and applies to words only. Sex is natural distinction and applies to living objects." (R. Morris) Adjectives and pronouns are said to vary in gender when the form is varied according to the gender of the words to which they refer. Origin: OF. Genre, gendre (with excrescent d), F.genre, fr. L. Genus, generis, birth, descent, race, kind, gender, fr. The root of genere, gignere, to beget, in pass, to be born, akin to E. Kin. See Kin, and cf. Generate, Genre, Gentle, Genus. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| gender dysphoria syndrome | <syndrome> A syndrome in which an individual experiences marked personal stress due to feelings that despite having the genitalia and secondary sexual characteristics of one gender there is a sense of compatibility and greater belonging to the other gender class; one may undergo surgery to reconstruct anatomy to that of the other gender. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gender identity | A person's concept of himself as being male and masculine or female and feminine, or ambivalent, usually based on the physical characteristics, parental attitudes and expectations, and psychological and social pressures to which the individual is subjected. It is the private experience of gender role. (12 Dec 1998) |
| gender identity disorders | A class of mental disorders characterised by an incongruity between an assigned culturally determined set of attitudes, behaviour patterns, and physical characteristics associated with masculinity or femininity and gender identity. See: transsexualism. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gender role | The sex of a child assigned by a parent; when opposite to the child's anatomical sex (e.g., due to genital ambiguity at birth or to the parents' strong wish for a child of the opposite sex), the basis is set for postpubertal dysfunctions. See: sex role, sex reversal. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gene | <cell biology, molecular biology> Originally defined as the physical unit of heredity, it is probably best defined as the unit of inheritance that occupies a specific locus on a chromosome, the existence of which can be confirmed by the occurrence of different allelic forms. Genes are formed from DNA, carried on the chromosomes and are responsible for the inherited characteristics that distinguish one individual from another. Each human individual has an estimated 100,000 separate genes. Given the occurrence of split genes, it might be redefined as the set of DNA sequences (exons) that are required to produce a single polypeptide. (09 Oct 1997) |
| gene activation | The process of activation of a gene so that it is expressed at a particular time. This process is crucial in growth and development. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gene amplification | <molecular biology> Selective replication of DNA sequence within a cell, producing multiple extra copies of that sequence. The best known example occurs during the maturation of the oocyte of Xenopus, where the set (normally 500 copies) of ribosomal RNA genes is replicated some 4,000 times to give about 2 million copies. (18 Nov 1997) |
| gene bank | A group of genes which are coordinately controlled. (09 Oct 1997) |
| gene cloning | <molecular biology> The insertion of a DNA sequence into a vector that can then be propagated in a host organism, generating a large number of copies of the sequence. (18 Nov 1997) |
| gene cluster | A set of closely related genes that code for the same or similar proteins and which are usuallygrouped together on the same chromosome. (09 Oct 1997) |