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.

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wild type British  

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

• wild-type adjective

Compare meaning

How does wild-type compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• wild type vs. mutant

Example Sentences

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

The novel system is designed to spread the original "wild type" version of the gene using the biased inheritance of specific genetic variants known as alleles and then disappear, leaving only a population of insects with the corrected version of the gene.

From Science Daily

For example, it may be possible to chelate magnesium ions from bacterial environments, which should selectively inhibit resistant strains without impacting the wild type bacteria that may be beneficial to our health.

From Science Daily

Studying a ribosome variant within Bacillus subtilis called "L22," the researchers found that competition for magnesium hinders the growth of L22 more than a normal "wild type" ribosome that is not resistant to antibiotics.

From Science Daily

“We have built good mosquitoes that do not bite, that do not transmit disease. And when we release these friendly mosquitoes, they seek out and mate with wild type female mosquitoes,” Oxitec head Grey Frandsen told the BBC.

From BBC