cistron

cistron means the unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.

Etymology

Coined by American molecular biologist Seymour Benzer in 1957, from cis + trans + -on. Named in the context of using a "cis-trans comparison" for identifying " […] whether two mutants, having similar defects, are indeed defective in the same way."

noun

The unit of hereditary material (e.g. DNA) that encodes one protein.“Holonym: locus”