Gene

From PGI

Jump to: navigation, search

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a biological information processing organisms. 

Genes are information objects that build and maintain their cells and pass genetic information to offspring by utilizing energy. 

In general terms, a gene is a segment of nucleic acid that, taken as a whole, specifies a trait. 

The colloquial usage of the term gene often refers to the scientific concept of an allele.