title: Muddled genetic terms miss and mess the message.
abstract: A critical aspect of science is the clear communication of complicated matters. However, language is often ambiguous, and the message can get lost in the telling. In particular, genetic terms can have different meanings for different people. Here, I discuss this problem and suggest remedies to clarify the message.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, BMC D10, SE-22184 Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: mauno.vihinen@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Mauno
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vihinen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005796:Genes; D005823:Genetics; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins
keywords: HGNC; HGVS nomenclature; Human Variome Project; Variation Ontology; clarity of presentation; genetic terms; muddled language; systematics