Henderson's Dictionary Of Biology

761 Pages·2005·21.806 MB·English

by  Eleanor Lawrence

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Thirteenth Edition BD H 00 VE
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HENDERSON’S IIC E NTRI
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DICTIONARY OF N
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BIOLOGY L D
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Edited by Eleanor Lawrence
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S Thirteenth Edition
The thirteenth edition of this classic dictionary has
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been updated in response to changes in the core Y O HENDERSON’S
life-sciences fields, and now includes new terms F
from bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics. N DICTIONARY OF
Key Features ’ BIOLOGY
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(cid:2) over 22,000 entries
(cid:2) clear definitions and additional explanations
Edited by Eleanor Lawrence
(cid:2) covers a wide range of topics
(cid:2) includes new terms since the last edition,
e.g. chameleon sequence, metabolomics,
protein chip, boundary elements, lipid raft, L
LUCA, RNA interference, ontology A
W
(cid:2) includes simplified, up-to-date classification
tables for the kingdoms of living organisms R
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Henderson’s Dictionary of Biologycontinues to provide
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an essential reference for students of any of the
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biological sciences and for teachers and researchers.
Eleanor Lawrenceis a freelance science
writer and editor, and co-author of
Longman Dictionary of Environmental Thirteenth
ISBN 0-131-27384-1
Science. Edition
9 780131 273849
www.pearson-books.com
HENDERSON’S DICTIONARY OF
Biology
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HENDERSON’S DICTIONARY OF
Biology
Thirteenth Edition
Eleanor Lawrence
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Pearson Education Limited
Edinburgh Gate
Harlow
Essex CM20 2JE
England
and Associated Companies throughout the world
Visit us on the World Wide Web at:
www.pearsoned.co.uk
First published 1920
Eighth edition 1963
Ninth edition 1979
Tenth edition 1989
Eleventh edition 1995
Twelfth edition 2000
Thirteenth edition 2005
© Oliver and Boyd Limited 1963
© Pearson Education Limited 1979, 1989, 1995, 2000, 2005
The right of Eleanor Lawrence to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted by her in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without either the prior
written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying
in the united Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd,
90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP.
ISBN-10: 0-13-127384-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-127384-9
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Henderson’s dictionary of biology / [edited by] Eleanor Lawrence. — 13th ed.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Henderson’s dictionary of biological terms. 12th ed., 2000.
ISBN 0-13-127384-1 (pbk.)
1. Biology–Dictionaries. I. Title: Dictionary of biology. II. Lawrence, Eleanor, 1949–
III. Henderson’s dictionary of biological terms.
QH302.5.H45 2005
570′.3—dc22
2004043190
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
10 09 08 07 06
Typeset in 8/9pt Times NR by 35
Printed and bound in Malaysia
The publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.
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CONTENTS
Preface to the Thirteenth Edition vii
Abbreviations ix
Units and conversions ix
SI prefixes xi
Greek alphabet xi
Common Latin and Greek noun endings xii
THE DICTIONARY 1–718
Appendices
1. An outline of the plant kingdom
(Domain Eukarya) 719
2. An outline of the Fungi (Domain Eukarya) 723
3. An outline of the animal kingdom
(Domain Eukarya) 725
4. An outline of the kingdoms protoctista and
stramenopila (Domain Eukarya) 734
5. An outline of the Domain Bacteria 736
6. An outline of the Domain Archaea 739
7. Virus families 740
8. Etymological origins of some common
word elements in biology 742
v
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PREFACE TO THE
THIRTEENTH EDITION
Since the publication of the Twelfth Edition of Henderson’s Dictionary of
Biological Terms new words have entered the biological vocabulary and old ones
have acquired new or more precise usages. Progress in genetics, cell biology and
biotechnology continues to be rapid, driven by the genome-sequencing programmes,
bioinformatics, the use of gene manipulation and advances in experimental cell
biology.
The classification of the living world followed in this edition reflects the divi-
sion of all living things into three domains or superkingdoms. Entries in the body
of the dictionary are given for all the main phyla, divisions and classes of plants,
fungi, animals, protists and prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea), with some orders
being included for groups such as the insects, birds, mammals and flowering plants.
There are also entries under many common names of organisms. The appendices
at the back give a fuller outline of the various kingdoms. Viruses are covered by
entries for the main groups and in an appendix.
Terms are arranged in strict alphabetical order, disregarding hyphenation and
spaces between words, with abbreviations and acronyms included in theirappropriate
place within the body of the dictionary. Numbers, Greek letters, andconfigurational
letters at the beginning of chemical names are ignored for alphabetization pur-
poses. Within an entry, different meanings of a term are numbered and separated
by semicolons. The abbreviations (bot.), (zool.), etc. have been used in some cases
to indicate more clearly which subject area a definition refers to. Almost all the
technical terms that may be used as part of a definition are defined within the
dictionary; to avoid complicating the text with excessive cross-referencing, such
terms are not generally indicated by (q.v.) within the body of an entry.
Common suffixes and prefixes derived from Latin and Greek are entered in
the body of the dictionary, along with their usual meanings, and Appendix 8 gives
etymological origins of some common word elements.
I should like to thank the staff of Longmans for their help and encouragement
throughout the project. Comments concerning errors or omissions in this editionwill
be greatly appreciated, so that they may be rectified in future reprints or editions.
Eleanor Lawrence
London, 2004
vii
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ABBREVIATIONS
a. adjective immunol. immunology
adv. adverb L. Latin
alt. alternative (synonym) microbiol. microbiology
anat. anatomy mol. biol. molecular biology
appl. applies or applied to mycol. mycology
biochem. biochemistry n. noun
bioinf. bioinformatics n haploid no. of chromosomes
bot. botany neurobiol. neurobiology
ca. circa (approximately) pert. pertaining to
cf. compare plu. plural
dev. biol. developmental biology p.p.m. parts per million
EC Enzyme Commission number q.v. see
(1978) r.n. Enzyme Commission
e.g. for example recommended name, where it differs
esp. especially from that used as the headword
et al. and others sing. singular
etc. and so forth sp. species (sing.)
evol. evolution spp. species (plu.)
genet. genetics v. verb
Gk Greek virol. virology
i.e. that is zool. zoology
UNITS AND CONVERSIONS
Basic SI units
ampere, A (electric current)
candela, cd (luminous intensity)
kelvin, K (temperature)
kilogram, kg (mass)
metre, m (length)
mole, mol (amount of substance)
second, s (time)
ix
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