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Can I have a list of suggestions, such as the mutated allele, other allele, etc. ? Are there any blatantly missing ones on my short list?

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  • $\begingroup$ List-type questions don't work well here. Your question is a bit borderline, so we'll see what everyone else thinks. One that you are missing is mutant allele. $\endgroup$
    – blep
    Jun 28, 2013 at 20:10
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    $\begingroup$ If not wt then it is a mutant. $\endgroup$
    – Kevin
    Jun 28, 2013 at 20:48

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Usually its major allele and minor allele. When you hear this language, you feel that the major allele is the 'wild' type, but its more precise to avoid 'wild'.

This language avoids the question of which one is 'wild' since different populations may have different ratios of the two.

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    $\begingroup$ This is a nomenclature I have almost only heard in bioinformatics context. In most biological literature I have generally seen "wild type" vs "mutant". Although the point about the different population is true one may argue that using major and minor brings confusion as the same allele can be major in a population and minor in another... $\endgroup$
    – nico
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:32
  • $\begingroup$ how do they know which allele is wild type? you would only know if you were doing an experiment where you created the mutant yourself I would think. $\endgroup$
    – shigeta
    Jul 11, 2013 at 5:09
  • $\begingroup$ I am not saying that wt/mutant is a better nomenclature in absolute, just that it is - probably for historical reasons - the one most commonly used (the wild type nomenclature if you wish :P). In general you would use wt for the allele most abundant in the general population. $\endgroup$
    – nico
    Jul 11, 2013 at 6:05
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Wild type refers to the phenotype of the typical form. Normally it is wild type is being compared to a mutant allele because the allele is not longer typical. So the answer would an allele that is not typical which, in most cases is a mutated allele.

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