Hetero-
Prefix meaning different, as in heteromorphism (something that is different in form) and heterozygous (possessing two different forms of a particular gene). The opposite of hetero- is homo-.
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- Hershey-Chase experiment
An extraordinarily important experiment in 1952 that helped to convince the world that DNA was the genetic material. Alfred Hershey (1908-1997) and his assistant Martha Chase (1923-2003) at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory showed that the DNA, not the protein, of the phage virus contains the phage genes. After a phage particle attaches to a […]
- Heterochromatin
constituitive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin.
- Heterochromatin, constitutive
Heterochromatin that is fixed and irreversible. Regions of constitutive heterochromatin are located at very specific spots in the genome (on chromosomes 1, 9, 16 and the Y chromosome, the tiny short arms of chromosomes 13-15 and 21 and 22, and near the centromeres of chromosomes) and consists of DNA that contains many tandem (not inverted) […]
- Heterochromatin, facultative
Heterochromatin that need not always be heterochromatic but which has the faculty to return to the normal euchromatic state. The inactive X chromosome is made up of facultative heterochromatin. When a woman transmits that X to a son, it reverts to euchromatin and genetic activity.
- Heterochromia iridis
A difference in color between the iris of one eye and the iris of the other eye. A person with one brown eye and one blue eye has heterochromia iridis.