Editing Cistron (section)

== History ==

The words ''cistron'' and ''gene'' were coined before the advancing state of [[biology]] made it clear to many people that the concepts they refer to, at least in some senses of the word ''gene'', are either equivalent or nearly so. The same historical naming practices are responsible for many of the [[synonym]]s in the life sciences.

The term ''cistron'' was coined by [[Seymour Benzer]] in an article entitled ''The elementary units of heredity''.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Benzer S | date = 1957 | chapter = The elementary units of heredity | title = The Chemical Basis of Heredity | url = https://archive.org/details/symposiumonchemi00symp | url-access = registration | veditors =  McElroy WD, Glass B | pages = [https://archive.org/details/symposiumonchemi00symp/page/70 70–93] | publisher = Johns Hopkins Press | location = Baltimore, Maryland }} also reprinted in {{cite book | vauthors = Benzer S | date = 1965 | chapter = The elementary units of heredity | title = Selected papers on Molecular Genetics | url = https://archive.org/details/selectedpaperson0000tayl | url-access = limited | veditors = Taylor JH | pages = [https://archive.org/details/selectedpaperson0000tayl/page/451 451]–477 | publisher = Academic Press | location = New York }}</ref> The cistron was defined by an operational test applicable to most organisms that is sometimes referred to as a cis-trans test, but more often as a [[complementation test]]. 

[[Richard Dawkins]] in his influential book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' argues ''against'' the cistron being the [[unit of selection]] and against it being the best [[gene#Definitions|definition of a gene]]. (He also argues against [[group selection]].) He does not argue against the existence of cistrons, or their being elementary, but rather against the idea that natural selection selects them; he argues that it used to, back in earlier eras of life's development, but not anymore. He defines a gene as a larger unit, which others may now call [[gene cluster]]s, as the unit of selection. He also defines replicators, more general than cistrons and genes, in this [[gene-centered view of evolution]].