See also: tin man
tinman (plural tinmen)
- (genetics) A master gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, whose absence causes the fly to develop without a heart.
2000, Carl Zimmer, “The Hidden Unity of Hearts”, Natural History, volume 109, number 3, pages 56-61:
- Tinman belongs to a special class of genes. [...] But some genes make proteins that control other genes. Some act like master switches, triggering many different genes to work together to build a structure. Tinman is one such “master gene” for the fruit fly.