CHROMATIN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Chromatin

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noun

Chromatin n. (Biol.) The deeply staining substance of the nucleus and chromosomes of eukaryotic cells, composed of DNA and basic proteins (such as histones), the DNA of which comprises the predominant physical basis of inheritance. It was, at the beginning of the 20th century, supposed to be the same substance as was then termed idioplasm or germ plasm. In most eukaryotic cells, there is also DNA in certain plasmids, such as mitochondria, or (in plant cells) chloroplasts; but with the exception of these cytoplasmic genetic factors, the nuclear DNA of the chromatin is believed to contain all the genetic information required to code for the development of an adult organism. In the interphase nucleus the chromosomes are dispersed, but during cell division or meiosis they are condensed into the individually recognizable chromosomes. The set of chromosomes, or a photographic representation of the full set of chromosomes of a cell (often ordered for presentation) is called a karyotype.

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Etymology of 'Chromatin'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Chromatin" Quotes from Famous Books

... non-granulated cells. They possess a protoplasm staining with various degrees of intensity, but in any case giving with triacid solution an extraordinarily deep dark-brown, and further a round simple nucleus often eccentrically situated, stained a moderately deep bluish-green, with however a distinct chromatin network. The smallest forms stand between the lymphocytes and the large mononuclear leucocytes, but approach the first named as a whole in their size and general appearance. According to Tuerk's investigations, these cells often occur simultaneously with, and under the ...

— Histology of the Blood - Normal and Pathological • Paul Ehrlich

... to show that factors are not indivisible units, and segregation is rather the difficulty of chromatin or germ plasm from different race uniting together. It must be remembered that the fertilised ovum which forms one individual gives rise also to dozens or hundreds or thousands or millions of gametes. ...

— Hormones and Heredity • J. T. Cunningham

... specific substance concerned with hereditary qualities as in a larger way protoplasm is the physical basis of life. It remained for Weismann to identify this theoretical substance with a specific part of the cell, namely, the deeply staining substance, or chromatin, contained in the nucleus of every cell. Bringing together the accumulating observations of the numerous cytologists of his time, and utilizing them for the development of his somewhat speculative theories, Weismann published in 1882 a volume called "The Germ Plasm," which is an immortal ...

— The Doctrine of Evolution - Its Basis and Its Scope • Henry Edward Crampton

Words linked to "Chromatin" : nucleus, chromatin granule, cell nucleus, chromatinic, sex chromatin, chromosome, body substance