Meaning & use
Muton
Last updated
In classical genetics, the smallest unit of DNA within a gene capable of undergoing mutation.
See it in a sentence
Early geneticists used the term muton to describe the minimal segment of DNA that mutation could alter.
The concepts of muton and recon were introduced alongside the cistron to describe gene substructure.
A note on using this word
Coined by Seymour Benzer in the 1950s, the term has largely been superseded by more precise molecular descriptions of DNA, such as 'base pair' or 'nucleotide.'
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