mutate
/mjuːˈteɪt
/verb [no object]
1Change in form or nature: rhythm and blues mutated into rock and roll...
- The pigeon let out one long coo, and then, as its body began to swell and transform, the sound mutated into a low chuckle.
- But now the perennial moaning about diving has mutated into a full-blown campaign to stamp out this malevolent practice.
- We had our reunion yesterday, attended by 11 of us which is a good turn out, and the day trip to France has now mutated into a weekend in Paris!
Synonyms
change, metamorphose, evolve, undergo a sea change;
transmute, transform, transfigure, recast, reconstruct, convert
humorous transmogrify
1.1 Biology (With reference to a cell, DNA molecule, etc.) undergo or cause to undergo change in a gene or genes: [no object]: the virus is able to mutate into new forms that are immune to the vaccine [with object]: certain nucleotides were mutated...
- This gene, when mutated, severely disrupts both germ cell migration and developmental cell death.
- Only 15 of these genes were previously known to cause a toxin phenotype when mutated.
- If a gene on the Y chromosome mutates, that piece of the male genetic code may disappear.
Derivatives
mutative
- Already, the replicative and mutative technologies of cloning and morphing have obliged us to review the complacent assumption of our unique ontological status as human subjects.
- He closed his hood over his face, cutting off all eyesight, and dove into the mutative wall of sand, letting its punishing currents bounce him inward like a bird riding on gale-swells.
- But we never see the mutative capabilities of the individuals themselves.
mutator
- Computer simulations predict that intermediate mutators can be selected and that, once selected, they have a much longer persistence time than strong mutators.
- Thus, two of the polymerase mutants are modest spontaneous mutators for some point mutations in yeast strains that are proficient in DNA mismatch repair.
- I argue that although some quantitative difference may be expected in a sexual population, the difference will be much smaller than that for mutators.
Origin
Early 19th century: back-formation from mutation.