penetrance
noun
pen·e·trance
ˈpe-nə-trən(t)s 
: the proportion of individuals of a particular genotype that express its phenotypic effect in a given environment
Examples of penetrance in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The penetrance of ovarian cancer is lower, in the neighborhood of 40 percent.
—
Jeff Wheelwright, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2012
When Jewish women enrolled in research to test the gene’s penetrance, the results were applied to all other ethnicities, where mutations were not as common.
—Jeff Wheelwright, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2012
GenePeeks and its competitors are going to focus on large effect high penetrance variants which are causal in Mendelian diseases because that's doable, and also not as ethically controversial.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2013
Sema4 only reports results for diseases that have a greater than 80 percent penetrance—the proportion of people with a genetic variant who end up developing the disease.
—Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 24 Dec. 2019
Research suggests that random fluctuations in gene activity could explain some instances of the phenomenon, known as partial penetrance, which likely plays a role in some human diseases.
—Quanta Magazine, 22 May 2014
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of
Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback
about these examples.
Jeff Wheelwright, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2012
When Jewish women enrolled in research to test the gene’s penetrance, the results were applied to all other ethnicities, where mutations were not as common.
—Jeff Wheelwright, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2012
GenePeeks and its competitors are going to focus on large effect high penetrance variants which are causal in Mendelian diseases because that's doable, and also not as ethically controversial.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2013
Sema4 only reports results for diseases that have a greater than 80 percent penetrance—the proportion of people with a genetic variant who end up developing the disease.
—Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 24 Dec. 2019
Research suggests that random fluctuations in gene activity could explain some instances of the phenomenon, known as partial penetrance, which likely plays a role in some human diseases.
—Quanta Magazine, 22 May 2014
Dictionary Entries Near penetrance
Cite this Entry
“Penetrance.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/penetrance. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
penetrance
noun
pen·e·trance
ˈpen-ə-trən(t)s
: the proportion of individuals of a particular genotype that express its phenotypic effect in a given environment compare expressivity
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share