Antisense

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌæntaɪˈsɛns/

Definitions

1. A genetic sequence that is complementary to another
2. A strand of nucleic acid that can bind to a corresponding sense strand during the process of gene expression
3. A segment that plays a role in regulating the synthesis of proteins by opposing a corresponding sequence

Etymology: The coinage is recent and transparent: "antisense" is simply "anti-" joined to "sense," and the term belongs to molecular biology rather than to any older vocabulary. The "anti-" prefix comes from Ancient Greek "anti," meaning "against" or "opposite," which English took in as a combining form for building new words. "Sense," for its part, traces back through Latin "sensus" (feeling, perception, meaning) and Old French "sens" to the Proto-Germanic root behind "sinn," a word for direction or way. The biological sense draws on the older meaning of "sense" as a direction or orientation. A DNA or RNA strand read in one direction carries the sequence that is used to make a protein, so an antisense segment is one that runs in the opposite orientation and pairs with that sequence, blocking its expression. The term is a straightforward compound, and its interest lies mainly in how an ordinary word for direction acquired a precise role in genetics.