An organism

Organism

In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...

 which has been treated with a Morpholino

Morpholino

In molecular biology, a Morpholino is a molecule in a particular structural family that is used to modify gene expression. Morpholino oligomers are an antisense technology used to block access of other molecules to specific sequences within nucleic acid...

 antisense oligo to temporarily knock down expression of a targeted gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

 is called a Morphant.

Background

This term was coined by Prof. Steve Ekker to describe the zebrafish with which he was experimenting; by knocking down embryonic

Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...

 gene expression using Morpholinos, Prof. Ekker "phenocopied" known zebrafish mutations, that is, he raised embryos that had the same morphological

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

 phenotype

Phenotype

A phenotype is an organism's observable characteristics or traits: such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, behavior, and products of behavior...

 as embryonic zebrafish with specific gene mutation

Mutation

In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...

s. Prof. Ekker's papers and presentations describing morphant phenocopies of mutant phenotypes, in combination with Prof. Janet Heasman's earlier work with Morpholinos in Xenopus

Xenopus

Xenopus is a genus of highly aquatic frogs native to Sub-Saharan Africa. There are 19 species in the Xenopus genus...

 embryos, led to rapid adoption of Morpholino technology by the developmental biology

Developmental biology

Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis", which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.- Related fields of study...

community.