| 释义 |
hypermutant, n. and a. Genetics.
Brit. |ˌhʌɪpəˈmjuːt(ə)nt|, U.S. |ˌhaɪpərˈmjutnt|
[‹ hyper- prefix + mutant n., after hypermutation n.]
A. n.
1. An organism exhibiting a major phenotypic change as a result of mutation. rare. disused.
1934W. H. Manwaring in Science 25 May 468/2 ‘Convergent evolution’ is an interesting by-product of this emergence, two practically identical hyper-mutants arising from two presumably unrelated bacterial species.
2. An organism or gene sequence that undergoes or has undergone mutation at a high rate.
1990V. K. Pathak & H. M. Temin in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87 6019/1 Such proviruses, which we name hypermutants, may arise through the action of an error-prone polymerase. 1994R. Preston Hot Zone 288 It [sc. the AIDS virus] is a hypermutant, a shape shifter, spontaneously altering its character as it moves through populations and through individuals. 1996Economist 16 Nov. 140/2 Moreover, and more worryingly, the biologists suggest that these ‘hypermutants’ may help to explain why certain pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria are rapidly becoming resistant to antibiotics. 2000Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 14570 (caption) One sequence..is a defective G→A hypermutant.
B. adj. That undergoes or has undergone mutation at a high rate.
1990V. K. Pathak & H. M. Temin in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87 6023/1 Almost 75% of the base pair substitutions that we found were present in the hypermutant proviruses. 1996AIDS Res. & Human Retroviruses 12 1605 The resulting sequences are like previously reported hypermutant human and simian immunodeficiency virus (HIV and SIV) genomes. |