epitype

plural epitypes

1. biologyAn additional, clarifying type (specimen or illustration) of a species or lower-order taxon, provided when the holotype and paratypes from the original classification are demonstrably ambiguous or insufficient.

   The epitype does not displace the primary type it is to interpret, but rather supplements it.

   2010, Philippe Bouchet, Ellen E. Strong, “Chapter 6: Historical Name-Bearing Types in Marine Molluscs: An Impediment to Biodiversity Studies?”, in Andrew Polaszek, editor, Systema Naturae 250: The Linnaean Ark, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press), page 72

   2 more examples

   It is clear, therefore, where any epitype, selected as an interpretive type, should be sought. The selection of an epitype, in the absence of type or authentic material, would be important, for any further molecular work will need to have available a culture of the type species of the genus which has some nomenclatural standing, i.e. a culture derived from the epitype.

   2000, G.-S. Seo, P. M. Kirk, “1: Ganodermataceae: Nomenclature and Classification”, in J. Flood, P. D. Bridge, M. Holderness, editors, Ganoderma Diseases of Perennial Crops, CABI Publishing, page 4

   In cases where a name-bearing type exists but does not show features needed for conclusive identification with a particular species circumscription, for example, one lacking spores, an interpretative type, an epitype, can be designated to supplement information evident in the name-bearing type. Epitypes are increasingly being designated in mycology today for sequenced material where DNA has not or cannot be recovered from the name-bearing type.

   2016, David L. Hawksworth, “Chapter 2: Mycotoxin-Producing and Clinically Important Fungi: Their Classification and Naming”, in R. Russell M. Paterson, Nelson Lima, editors, Molecular Biology of Food and Water Borne Mycotoxigenic and Mycotic Fungi, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press), page 9

2. epigeneticsbiologyAn epigenetic alteration in a gene.

   1 more example

   To test this hypothesis our discussion is focused on finding evidence for gene-specific epitypes that supports or rejects cause-and-effect relationships between genotype, epitype and phenotype.[…]The first approach (A) examines the penetrance of transgenerationally inherited epitypes that are known to activate or silence the expression of disease related gene(s), which in turn correlate with onset of the "aberrant" disease phenotypes.[…]The second and less direct approach (B) searches out epitypes that are duplicated, as DNA sequences are duplicated, and examines multiple copies of DNA sequence and epitype that have been evolutionarily co-conserved.

   2013, Kasirajan Ayyanathan, Epigenetics and Pathology: Exploring Connections Between Genetic Mechanisms, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press), page 284