enucleate
/ɪˈnjuːklɪeɪt
/verb [with object]
1 Biology Remove the nucleus from (a cell): (as adjective enucleated) replication will occur in enucleated cells...
- An egg cell is enucleated, that is, the nucleus is removed and replaced with the nucleus from the body cell of an animal of the same kind.
- The fact that erythrocyte size correlates positively with genome size in mammals, even though their mature red blood cells are enucleated, strongly supports this hypothesis.
- DNA from human skin cells were placed within enucleated human embryos and then exposed to chemical and growth factors.
2Surgically remove (a tumour or gland, or the eyeball) intact from its surrounding capsule: when an eyeball is enucleated, as much of the optic nerve as possible should be removed...
- The prostates were subsequently enucleated or removed and examined by a pathologist.
- Once freed, the tumor is enucleated through the incision using the curette.
- All other tumors were enucleated and no recurrence was encountered.
adjective Biology
(Of a cell) lacking a nucleus.The results strongly suggest that some mRNA species are imported into sieve elements, which are enucleate, from neighbouring companion cells....
- Erythrocytes are enucleate and contain primarily globin mRNA.
- Tapetal cells have a very short life span and for the most part are fully functional while being enucleate.
Derivatives
enucleation
/ noun ...- We report the case of a 49-year-old woman with a family history of retinoblastoma who developed a unilateral retinoblastoma at age 2 and was treated with enucleation, without adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy.
- The lesion was initially treated by enucleation in another hospital 4 years earlier under a working diagnosis of ‘atypical ameloblastoma.’
- Thus the first interpretation suggests a scene of castration and blindness: the figure's gesture is one of enucleation, the bird is about to bite his hand, and the title suggests that he covers the bird's eye with leaves.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the sense 'clarify, explain'): from Latin enucleat- 'extracted, made clear', from the verb enucleare, from e- (variant of ex-) 'out of' + nucleus 'kernel' (see nucleus).