Allele
Origin
From German Allel, shortened from Allelomorph, from English allelomorph.
Full definition of allele
Noun
allele
(plural alleles)- (genetics) One of a number of alternative forms of the same gene occupying a given position on a chromosome.
- 2013, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, Wild Plants to the Rescue, Plant breeding is always a numbers game....The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.