Subclone

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A clone or descendant of a mutant occurring in a previous clone

    "During this process it is possible that additional mutations occur in one of the transformed cells, which then may result in a subclone of cells with a more aggressive behavior."

  2. 2
    A partial segment of DNA, cloven from a previously-cloned segment, which is then cloned into another vector

    "While Shelly was away from the lab, Rene decided that it would be easier to divide the lengthy segment into smaller pieces, or subclones, and to insert each fraction into plasmids, little circles of DNA and protein."

Verb
  1. 1
    To reclone part of a previously-cloned DNA segment into a new vector

    "(1) from the genomic library a clone of interest is selected and a small fragment is subcloned from one end of the clone"

Example

More examples

"During this process it is possible that additional mutations occur in one of the transformed cells, which then may result in a subclone of cells with a more aggressive behavior."

Etymology

From sub- + clone.

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