An example of a potential phantom metaphor:
"A great deal of research has been devoted to understanding how the globin genes first become poised to express themselves and then execute their programs of abundant yet tightly regulated fetal and adult globin gene expression. Globin genes are completely silent in all other tissues, and in other hematopoietic progenitors, except for the 5- to 7-day period between the early erythroblast and reticulocyte stages of terminal maturation."
Benz, Edward J. (2018) Anemias, red cells, and the essential elements of red cell homeostasis, in Edward J. Benz, Nancy Berliner, & Fred J. Schiffman, Anemia. Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management, Cambridge University Press, 1-13.
The adjective 'silent' might seem to be being used metaphorically, but 'silent genes' is now an accepted technical term in specialist discourse.
