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wild type

American  

noun

Genetics.
  1. an organism having an appearance that is characteristic of the species in a natural breeding population.

  2. the form or forms of a gene commonly occurring in nature in a given species.


wild type British  

noun

  1. biology the typical form of a species of organism resulting from breeding under natural conditions

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Example Sentences

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They then tracked these organisms over many generations and compared their growth to the wild type, or the most common form found in nature.

From Science Daily • Dec. 24, 2025

Planned after wild type 2 poliovirus had been eradicated, the switch—which the report calls “the largest coordinated public health effort in history”—was like a trial run for that ultimate goal.

From Science Magazine • May 7, 2024

In the current study, researchers noted that wild type wounded mice healed quite well, but the skin of transgenic mice devoid of microRNA-29 regenerated even better.

From Science Daily • Feb. 1, 2024

"As new variants of SARS-CoV-2 continue to emerge, it is important to assess the cross-neutralizing capabilities of antibodies naturally elicited during wild type SARS-CoV-2 infection," the authors explain.

From Salon • Sep. 12, 2022

Of course its chance of ever founding a wild type is precluded by this defect.

From Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation by Vries, Hugo de

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