pleiotropy, pleiotropia

Production by a single mutant gene of apparently unrelated multiple effects at the clinical or phenotypic level. [pleio- + G. tropos, turning]

- functional p. the p. due to the participation of the same allelic change in multiple otherwise distinct processes; e.g., heparin is active in many body reactions including coagulation and the metabolism of fat.

- structural p. a p. that occurs when two or more regions of a polypeptide may have quite distinct and unrelated biologic functions that share nothing in common except that they are transcribed and translated at the same time.