unit character

American  

noun

Genetics.

1. a characteristic, usually controlled by a single gene, that is transmitted as a unit in heredity.

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unit character British  

noun

1. genetics a character inherited as a single unit and dependent on a single gene

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Etymology

Origin of unit character

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Other decals boasted unit character through their fearsome, comical or fanciful logos: thunderbirds, doves, seahorses, wolves, warthogs, lions, tigers, bears, cobras, elephants, alligators, sharks.

From New York Times • Jul. 20, 2012

Here, as elsewhere in tracing hereditariness in so-called functional nervosities, one should take as the unit character for study the mental traits or trends and exclude definite disease entities applied to ancestral disorders.

From The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Volume 10 by Various

The reckless use of the phrase "unit character" has done much to mislead the uninitiated as to the effects that a single change in the germ plasm may produce on the organism.

From A Critique of the Theory of Evolution by Morgan, Thomas Hunt

The starch-producing unit character, which is active in the ordinary sorts of corns, is therefore latent in sugar-corn.

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

Why is there such variation in the results produced by a unit character?

From Applied Eugenics by Popenoe, Paul