Meanings
plural cistrons
- The unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.
Holonym: locus
2 more examples
Near-synonym: gene (often synonymous)
The butterfly mimicry cluster is a good example. As the cistrons leave one body and enter the next, as they board sperm or egg for the journey into the next generation, they are likely to find that the little vessel contains their close neighbours of the previous voyage, old shipmates with whom they sailed on the long odyssey from the bodies of distant ancestors.
1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 41Synonyms: gene
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.
More synonyms by meaning
noun(genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Coined by American molecular biologist Seymour Benzer in 1957, from cis + trans + -on. Named in the context of using a "cis-trans comparison" for identifying " […] whether two mutants, having similar defects, are indeed defective in the same way."
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
cistron. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cistron
“cistron.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cistron. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cistron,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cistron.
Source: cistron on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.