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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior pp 1–4Cite as

Alleles

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Synonyms

Allelomorph

Definition

Alleles are variant forms of a gene that differ in sequence information.

What Are Alleles at Genetic Level?

The term allele refers to variant forms of a gene. A gene can be considered as any stretch of the DNA that gets transcribed, i.e., gets converted to RNA. So, a gene is basically a sequence of nucleotides that is characterized by its specific loci or position in the genome.

The nucleotide sequence information of a gene can have variants and each variant of the gene having a different sequence is referred to as an allelic form or allele of the gene.

A gene may have a single or multiple allelic forms.

How Do Allelic Forms Arise?

Allelic variants arise due to mutations, i.e., changes in the sequence information (Watson 2014). Suppose a gene has a single allelic form having a particular sequence. In course of time, the sequence can get changed due to variety of factors, and the new form with the changed sequence is considered as a new allelic form of...

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References

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  • Hartl, D. (2012). Essential genetics: A genomics perspective (6th ed.). Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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  • Snustad, D., & Simmons, M. (2003). Principles of genetics (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley.

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  • Watson, J. (2014). Molecular biology of the gene (7th ed.). San Francisco: Pearson Education.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, 400076, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Damini Jaiswal

Authors
  1. Damini Jaiswal
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Correspondence to Damini Jaiswal .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad, 500046, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Akash Gautam

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Jaiswal, D. (2017). Alleles. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_29-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_29-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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