"monotelic" - Word of the Day from the OED

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monotelic, adj.

DRAFT ENTRY Mar. 2010

Brit. /mn()tlk/, U.S. /mntlk/  [< MONO- comb. form + ancient Greek (see TELOS n.) + -IC suffix (compare TELIC adj.). In sense 2 after German monotel (in W. Troll Infloreszenzen (1964) I. 149). Compare POLYTELIC adj.] 

    1. Zool. Designating or relating to an animal which breeds only once in its lifetime. Cf. SEMELPAROUS adj.

1962 V. C. WYNNE-EDWARDS Animal Dispersion xxiii. 574 It is convenient to have a technical term to designate the second situation, and for this ‘monotelic’literally meaning once-reaching-maturity or perfection-seems appropriate. 1979 Nature 25 Jan. 332/3 Division of annelid species into monotelic and polytelic groups (that is, those which breed only once and those which breed more than once) provides an interesting touchstone. 1992 Bull. Marine Sci. 51 407 This species has a monotelic reproductive strategy. 1996 Raffles Bull. Zool. 44 263 The worms were monotelic and most probably did not survive one spawning cycle. 2001 Canad. Jrnl. Zool. 79 254 As Nereidae are the most intensively studied polychaetes, their epigamic monotelic strategy is discussed first in this review.

    2. Bot. Of an inflorescence (esp. a synflorescence): having the main axis and all of the lateral axes terminating in a single flower.

1965 Jrnl. Linn. Soc. 59 216 In the monotelic inflorescence..the apex of the inflorescence axis ends with a terminal flower. 1985 Pakistan Jrnl. Bot. 17 132 Monotelic, an inflorescence with a terminal flower to every shoot. 1991 A. D. BELL Plant Form 142/3 All cymes being sympodial are monotelic, as are racemes that have a terminal flower. 2000 Kew Bull. 55 155 Possessing a determinate monotelic inflorescence, the genus [Philcoxia] appears to be one of the very few members of tribe Scrophulariae recorded for Brazil.

    3. Cell Biol. Designating or exhibiting attachment of only one of the sister kinetochores (centromeres) of a mitotic or meiotic chromosome to a pole of the spindle; (also) designating attachment of a single kinetochore to only one pole.

1973 Chromosoma 41 197 The normal orientation of mitotic chromosomes is amphitelic... Chromosomes with one oriented and one unoriented kinetochore are mono-oriented (monotelic orientation). 1973 Chromosoma 41 205 In all of these cases the structure of the sister kinetochores corresponds to that of monotelic chromosomes in mid-prometaphase. 1995 Protoplasma 186 199/1 Monotelic orientation of detached kinetochores to MTs [= microtubules] from only one centrosome occurs in approximately 75% of the cells studied.

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