Transgene

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A gene from one species introduced into the genome of another by transgenesis.

    "It has created a biotechnology centred on genetic engineering that has introduced transgenes, transmitted through natural interspecies crosses, which, in turn, have allowed emergence of resistant superweeds and superpests, which, in their turn, demand the application of further chemical poisons […]"

  2. 2
    an exogenous gene introduced into the genome of another organism wordnet

Example

More examples

"It has created a biotechnology centred on genetic engineering that has introduced transgenes, transmitted through natural interspecies crosses, which, in turn, have allowed emergence of resistant superweeds and superpests, which, in their turn, demand the application of further chemical poisons […]"

Etymology

From trans- + gene, from 1980s.

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