CARTA Glossary

Displaying 901 - 1000 of 1063 defined words
Word Definition Related Vocabulary
Secretory phase

Synonymous with luteal phase.

Seed bank

A seed repository, such as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Svalbard, Norway), specifically for the preservation of genetic diversity.

Segmental duplication

Any repetitive portion of DNA arising by genome duplication that is at least 90% identical and >1 kbp in length.

Selection

Allele frequency change over time caused by the different replication rate of specific alleles.

Selective Attachment

A specific bond formed between a mother and her offspring, which results in the mother exclusively caring for her own young and actively rejecting non-familiar young.

Selective sweep

The process through which a new beneficial mutation increases in frequency within a population due to its positive effect on survival and reproduction; this process leads to a reduction in genetic variation among neighboring nucleotide sequences.

Self-associated molecular patterns (SAMPS)

A class of molecular patterns that signal intrinsic inhibitory receptors of immune cells to remain in or return to their baseline, non-activated state.

Self-Awareness

Conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.

Semantics (Linguistics)

The study of the logic and meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text.

Sequence

The linear order of the nucleotide building blocks, which encodes individual form and function.

Sequencing

Reading the order of nucleotides in DNA.

Serious Play

A form of play that uses inquiry and innovation for complex problem-solving.

Serovar

 A subdivision within a species bacteria or viruses, or among immune cells of different individuals grouped together based on cell surface antigens.

Serum (blood)

The fluid, or plasma, constituent of blood and does not contain clotting proteins.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

A contagious and sometimes fatal respiratory illness caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1). SARS was first reported in China in November 2002 and was rapidly spread worldwide by international travelers. Symptoms first appear flu-like with a fever, chills, muscle aches, headache and sometimes diarrhea. This can progress to a dry cough and shortness of breath. A massive global response helped to contain the spread of the disease and no new cases of the original SARS have been reported since 2004.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1)

A strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). It is a single-stranded RNA virus that infects the epithelial cells within the lungs and can infect humans, bats, and palm civets.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

A novel strain of coronavirus closely related to SARS-CoV that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which resulted in a pandemic. It is a naturally evolving virus that crossed to humans from another animal, mostly likely a bat. SARS CoV-2 is completely different from the family that includes influenza viruses though both can cause respiratory symptoms.

Sex hormones

Steroid hormones, such as androgens (testosterone), estrogens, and progestogens, that interact with steroid hormone receptors.

Sexual dimorphism

The difference in anatomical and physiological characteristics between the sexes of a species, such as body size, weight, and pigmentation.

Sexual selection theory

The selection of and competition for a reproductive partner. Inter-sexual mate selection of the opposite sex is contrasted with intra-sexual competition with same sex members for opposite sex mates.

Sexual Swelling

Visible swelling of the perineum during estrus.

Short Interspersed Nuclear Elements (SINEs)

A type of retrotransposon, or transposable element (“jumping genes”) that are abundant, non-autonomous, non-coding, and are 100 - 700 base pairs in length such as Alu elements.

Shotgun

Sequencing cuts the genome into short chunks that are read and reassembled by a computer.

Sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-type lectins (Siglec)

Cell-surface proteins that bind sialic acid. They are primarily found on immune cell surfaces. These sialic acid–binding proteins that are members of the I-type lectin family and have an outer terminal with a typically conserved amino acid sequence.

Sialic acids

Family of acidic sugars with a nine-carbon backbone. They are found at the outermost fringes of the sugar chains (glycans) that cover all vertebrate cells. The two most common sialic acids in mammals are N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) and N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc).

Sialidase

An enzyme that cleaves sialic acid, an abundant sugar that coats most vertebrate cells.

Sickle Cell Anemia

An inherited red blood cell (RBC) disorder and one of the group of disorders of Sickle Cell Disease. In Sickle Cell Anemia, RBCs assume a sickle, or crescent shape, and degrade prematurely, causing a lack of red blood cells (anemia) to perform gas exchange. Shortness of breath, fatigue, and delayed growth and development in children are common conditions.

Sickle Cell Disease

A group of inherited red blood cell disorders caused by the production of hemoglobin S, a protein in red blood cells (RBCs) that causes RBCs to assume a sickle, or crescent, shape. Sickled red blood cells break down prematurely, which causes the group of disorders, including Sickle Cell Anemia (a lack of red blood cells causing shortness of breath, fatigue, and delayed growth and development in children), jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin due to rapid breakdown of red blood cells), clotting (sickled red blood cells, which are stiff and inflexible, get stuck in small blood vessels depriving tissues and organs of oxygen-rich blood and can lead to organ damage, especially in the lungs, kidneys, spleen, and brain), and pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs). Repeated infections, and periodic episodes of pain are also common. The severity of symptoms varies from person to person.

Sickle Cell Trait

In humans, a condition in which a person is heterozygous for codominant alleles of the hemoglobin subunit beta (HBB) gene and produces both normal hemoglobin proteins (hgb) and abnormal hemoglobin proteins (hemoglobin S, which causes red blood cells (RBCs) to assume a sickle, or crescent, shape). In environments where malaria is endemic, humans with Sickle Cell Trait have a selective advantage as it confers some resistance to malaria. Sickle cells prevent the malaria parasite from stealing actin (a protein that maintains the pliable internal skeleton of RBCs). Actin is used by the parasite to transport another protein, adhesin (produced by the parasite), to the cell surface. Adhesin causes the infected red blood cells to adhere to each other and to vessel walls, resulting in microvascular inflammation. A person with Sickle Cell Trait does not display the severe symptoms of Sickle Cell Disease.

Siglec chimera

The extra-cellular, sialic acid binding portion of a Siglec protein fused to another protein domain and transgenically expressed in a cell line. They are used to study Siglec binding.

Siglec-11

An innate immune receptor expressed uniquely in human brain microglia cells.

Silent Mutations

No change to the phenotype.

Silver-Russell Syndrome

A complex genetic disorder affecting growth.

Singing in tongues

An act of religious worshiping through glossolalia, a practice in which people sing or utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. Glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, as well as in other religions.

Single Clonal Lineage Analysis A system for labeling and following a single progenitor cell and its daughter cells as they proliferate and mature.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)

A variation involving a single base-pair, occurring in at least 1% of the population.

Single-point piercing (aka surface anchor)

1. A type of body piercing in which a tiny ornament is inserted into a single opening that is formed in the tissue. This opening is the entrance as well as the exit. 2. The body jewelry used in such a piercing.

Sisal (Sansevieria ehrenbergii)

Also known as “East African wild sisal,” it is a dry-adapted plant with many uses, such as for making natural bandages, rope, instrument strings, baskets, roofs, and clothes. True sisal is Agave sisalana, an American plant related to maguey.

Sixth Mass Extinction

The loss of species as a result of human activity. It is also referred to as the Holocene extinction or the Anthropocene extinction.

Social

Relating to society or its organization.

Social Bond

The degree to which an individual is integrated into the society, or ‘the social’. Social bond is the binding ties or social bonding to the family. Social bond also includes social bonding to the school, to the workplace and to the community.

Social Institutions

Established rules or norms that result in stable patterns of behavior within a community.

Social monogamy

A mating system where individuals form stable pair-bonds with regard to territory and raising of the young, but also mate outside of the pair.

Social Referencing

A process where an individual takes cues from other people in the environment, about which emotions and actions are appropriate in a certain context or situation. 

Social-Emotional Development

The experience, expression, and management of emotions and the ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with others. It encompasses both intra- and interpersonal processes. The core features of emotional development include the ability to identify and understand one’s own feelings, to accurately read and comprehend emotional states in others, to manage strong emotions and their expression in a constructive manner, to regulate one’s own behavior, to develop empathy for others, and to establish and maintain relationships.

Sociostasis

A recently evolved capacity to use sociality to anticipate and cope with a variety of challenges, and is necessary for mammalian survival and reproduction.

Spatial transcriptomics

A technique that combines gene expression analysis with tissue architecture mapping. It allows for the examination of how genes are expressed in specific locations within a tissue sample, preserving the spatial context of cells. This method provides a detailed, high-resolution view of where and how genes are active in different parts of a tissue, enabling the study of complex biological processes, cellular interactions, and disease mechanisms.

Species

A population whose individuals can mate with one another to produce viable and fertile offspring. This is a debated definition and the concept is problematic for extinct fossil organisms for which DNA is not available. This definition is problematic in regard to bacteria as they can exchange genetic material across widely separate taxa.

Spillover Infection

Also known as “pathogen spillover” and “spillover event,” occurs when a reservoir population with a high pathogen prevalence comes into contact with a novel host population. The pathogen is transmitted from the reservoir population and may or may not be transmitted within the host population.

SRGAP2

A gene on chromosome 1 that encodes for a protein that plays a role in cortical neuron development. Duplications of this gene are unique only to humans.

Stable Isotope

 Isotopes that do not decay into other elements.  These isotopes, found in biological material, including fossils, and can be used to study paleo-diet and ecology.

Starch

A plant storage molecule in the form of a polysaccharide. Starch is obtained chiefly from cereals, tubers, and potatoes. It is an important constituent of the human diet due to its digestibility, unlike many other polysaccharides, such as plant cellulose, pectins, and xylans (polyxylose).

Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas)

An extinct aquatic and herbivorous mammal, related to living manatees, described by Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1714 while shipwrecked on Bering Island. The species was hunted into extinction shortly after European discovery.

Steroid

A biological compound manufactured by plants, animals, and fungi that functions as either important components of cell membranes or as signalling molecules.

Stone Age

The prehistoric period during which stone was used to make tools and weapons and is synonymous with the Paleolithic. ~3.4 million years ago (mya) - 10 thousand years ago (kya). In African archaeology, stone age chronology is divided into Early Stone Age (ESA): ~2.6 mya to ~300 kya; Middle Stone Age (MSA): ~300 kya to ~50 kya; and Later Stone Age (LSA): ~ 50 kya to ~39 kya.

  • Early Stone Age is characterized by the development of the first African stone tools, such as the Oldowan technology used by Australopithecines, and the later Acheulean technology, used by Homo erectus.
  • Middle Stone Age is characterized by a transition from Acheulean to Levallois technology and the earliest known modern human behavior.
  • Later Stone Age is characterized by microlithic industries and punch-struck blades, revealing fully modern human behavior.
Story

The telling of “what happened” in spoken words, written words, words and pictures, acting or mime, or film, etc. Stories include things that really happened and things that are imagined to have happened. Story is generally equivalent to narrative but can also be used specifically and technically in opposition to discourse. Stories tends to possess an emotional contour of “a beginning, a middle, and an end,” rather than the explanatory contour of narrative.

Storytelling

The social and cultural activity of sharing stories for entertainment, education, or instilling morals and values.

Streptococcal Infection

Any type of infection caused by the group of Streptococcus bacteria.

Streptococcus

A genus of Gram-positive bacteria with over 50 recognized species. Streptococcus species are responsible for “strep” throat, pink eye, meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, endocarditis, erysipelas, and necrotizing fasciitis (the “flesh- eating” bacterial infections). However, many streptococcal species are not pathogenic and form part of the commensal human microbiota of the mouth, skin, intestine, and upper respiratory tract. Streptococci are also a necessary ingredient in producing Emmentaler (“Swiss”) cheese.

Stress

Effects of disturbances in an individual or system that disrupt adaptive functions; response of a dynamic system to challenges or demands.

Stressors

Events or experiences that typically result in stress on a system.

Stretching

In terms of body piercing, “stretching” describes the enlargement method of a sufficient force, passively or actively, that triggers a genetic cellular response to produce more cells resulting in an enlargement of the piercing fistula and growth in the immediate area’s connected skin tissue.

Stride length

The distance between two subsequent footfalls.

Striding bipedalism

The uniquely-human form of bipedal locomotion, which involves the full extension of the hip and knee joints in the support leg during the stance phase, movement of the hip joint over and in front of the knee and ankle joints in the support leg, and a longer stride length compared to ape bipedalism.

Stroma

The structural framework of an organ or tissue.

Stromal fibroblasts

The common type of cells of stroma, they synthesize the extracellular matrix and collagen, and are also involved in wound healing.

Structural homologs of brain neurotransmitters

Substrates that, by virtue of their chemical similarity to neurotransmitters, interact with receptors.

Structural variation (Genomics)

The variation in structure of an organism’s chromosomes. It consists of many kinds of variation in the genome of one species, and usually includes microscopic and submicroscopic types, such as deletions, duplications, copy-number variants, insertions, inversions and translocations that are greater than or equal to 50 base pairs in length.

Subcortical Structure

A group of diverse neural formations deep within the brain which include the diencephalon, pituitary gland, limbic structures and the basal ganglia. They are involved in complex activities such as memory, emotion, pleasure and hormone production. They act as information hubs of the nervous system, as they relay and modulate information passing to different areas of the brain.

Subincision

“Cutting below.” An incision along the bottom of the shaft of the penis, from the urethral meatus and downward toward the scrotum, of varying depth and length.

Subitizing

The quick, reliable, and accurate discrimination of small quantities (usually within numerosities 1–4).

Subventricular Zone Describes both embryonic and adult neural tissues in the vertebrate nervous system.
Sulcus (Brain)

A depression or groove in the cerebral cortex that, along with a gyrus (ridge), creates the folded appearance of the brain in humans and other mammals. The larger sulci are usually called fissures.

Sumoylation

A post-translational modification in which a small protein called SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier) is covalently attached to a target protein. This process is similar to ubiquitylation, but instead of marking proteins for degradation, sumoylation typically regulates the function, stability, or localization of target proteins.

Sunda

During the Pleistocene Epoch, when the sea level was as much as 150 meters lower than today, the land masses of Thailand, Malaya, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the Philippines were all part of a broader land shelf which is called Sunda by contemporary geologists, being the old continental Southeast Asia.

Superincision

“Cutting above.” An incision to the male foreskin above the glans. Synonymous with dorsal slit.

Symbionts

An organism that lives in a symbiosis providing benefits to its host.

Symbiosis

A close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic.

Symbol

A sign that has an arbitrary and non-physical relationship with the thing that it refers to (its “referent”) (Kluender, 2020).

Symbolic Play

A type of play involving fantasy, imagination, and pretend to us available objects as stand ins for other objects.

Synaesthesia

A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another.

Synapse

A structure that forms the connection between a neuron and another cell (neuron or other effector cell), that allows for transmission of electrical or chemical signals. 

Synaptic plasticity

The ability of synapses to change in relation to activity and inactivity, with these changes as central to communication between neurons and memory.

Synonymous/Non-synonymous Mutations

No change to the protein; changes to protein, respectively.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Synteny

The conservation of relative gene order on chromosomes in different species. Synteny is valuable for understanding evolutionary relationships.

T-maze Test

A parental challenge test. The apparatus is a T-shaped Plexiglas structure that is used to measure whether female rats or mice are willing to protect their infants from potential harm. The maze is novel (new) and therefore fear-inducing to neophobic rodents. Rodents that fail to group pups in the nest within 15 minutes are considered neglectful.

Tattooing

The deliberate insertion of pigment into the skin to create visible marks.

Telomere

A region of repetitive nucleotide sequences located at the ends of chromosomes that functions to protect chromosomes from degradation and fusion with other chromosomes.

Temporal Lobe (Brain)

One of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain.

Terra gram (Tg)

A unit of measure equivalent to 1,012 grams. 1.0 Tg is the same as 1.0 metric ton (Mt). When applied to nitrogen, it refers to the mass of the element N.

Terror Management Theory

A concept in social psychology that proposes the existence of a basic psychological conflict that results from having a desire to live but realizing death is inevitable.

Testosterone

A primary male sex hormone, although it is also present in females in smaller amounts. It is produced primarily in the testes in men and in the ovaries in women, with small amounts produced by the adrenal glands in both sexes. Testosterone plays a crucial role in the development of male reproductive tissues, such as the testes and prostate, and is responsible for secondary sexual characteristics like facial hair, deepening of the voice, increased muscle mass, and bone density. In addition to its role in sexual development, testosterone is involved in regulating mood, energy levels, libido, and overall health. It also influences behaviors such as aggression and competitiveness. In both men and women, testosterone levels can fluctuate with age, and imbalances can lead to various health issues.

The Microbiota Vault

A global non-profit aimed at conserving the biodiversity of microbiota through interactions with local collections and research efforts around the world by providing backup storage and a framework for data services and collaboration.

Theory of Mind (ToM)

The ability to attribute mental beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives, etc., to oneself and to others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are similar or different from one’s own. Related/Overlapping Terms: “Intentionality,” Attribution of Mental States,” “Inter-subjectivity,” “Mind- Reading,” “Perspective taking,” “Other-regarding Impulses,” etc.

Therianthrope

From Ancient Greek for “wild beast” and “human” to represent a fantastical hybrid. Examples from myth, folklore, and popular culture are the minotaur, the werewolf and Donald Duck, respectively.

Tinbergen's Four Questions

Nikolaas Tinbergen’s 1962 paper “On aims and methods of Ethology,” defined complementary categories for analyzing and explaining animal behavior as proximate (developmental: both ontogenic and mechanistic) and ultimate (evolutionary: both phylogenetic and adaptive).

  • Proximate/Ontogeny: How does the trait develop in individuals?
  • Proximate/Mechanism: How does the trait work?
  • Ultimate/Phylogeny: What is the trait’s evolutionary history?
  • Ultimate/Adaptation: Why does the trait perform better than evolvable alternatives?
Titi monkey (genus Callicebus)

A New World Monkey found across South America that is diurnal and arboreal. Titi monkeys are territorial and live in family groups (parents and offspring) of 2-7 members. They are often observed sitting or sleeping in pairs with tails wrapped around each other.

Tlaxcallan

The location of a settlement of Tlaxcaltecs, opponents of the Mexica in central Mexico.

Tlaxcaltecs

A population of central Mexico during the 16th century CE and who were military opponents of the neighboring Mexica.

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