What is "bicoid"

n. (context biochemistry English) A protein, in Drosophila and related flies, specified by the bicoid gene, the concentration gradient of which serves to specify which end of the egg will become the head of the fly.

Bicoid is a maternal effect gene whose protein concentration gradient patterns the anterior-posterior axis during Drosophila embryogenesis. Bicoid was also the first protein demonstrated to act as a morphogen.