Counterselection

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Selection that removes unwanted characteristics. countable, uncountable

    "In all recipients, distant drug resistance markers streptomycin (SmR; rpsL104), chloramphenicol (CmR; recA::cat(FRT)), and/or nalidixic acid (NlR; gyrA96) were used for counterselection."

  2. 2
    Dysgenic selection (that has the opposite effects of natural selection). countable, uncountable

Example

More examples

"In all recipients, distant drug resistance markers streptomycin (SmR; rpsL104), chloramphenicol (CmR; recA::cat(FRT)), and/or nalidixic acid (NlR; gyrA96) were used for counterselection."

Etymology

From counter- + selection.

Related phrases

natural selection

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.