"retaining characteristics" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used in a sentence when referring to something that maintains or holds onto certain qualities or features. Example: Despite undergoing many changes, the traditional cultural practices of the tribe have managed to retain their unique characteristics.
Landrace strains are very well adapted to their local growing conditions, such as climate, soil, fertilisation and weather, developing their unique chemical profiles and retaining characteristics that are lost in many modern strains.
On the other hand, in zebrafish the gene retaining characteristics more similar to human Prep1 is prep1.1.
Osteosarcomas are the most common type of bone cancers, retaining characteristics of primary osteoblasts and are widely used for studying osteoblasts (27).
In other words, PCA summarizes the original features information by retaining characteristics of the dataset which most contribute to its variance.
Although it does receive some state money, the university is privately chartered and retains characteristics of a private institution.
Another lesser-known species, the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), is regarded as a viverrid but retains characteristics of cats as well.
Cricket was the world's first modern team sport – it emerged in late 18th-century Britain within a burgeoning market economy – and because of that it retains characteristics of a preindustrial age, not least the time it takes to play out a proper match.
M.tb resides within a novel vacuole that retains characteristics of early endosomal compartments and fails to fuse with lysosomes (Russell 2003; Vergne et al. 2004).
Folk psychology retains characteristics of now obsolete theories or legends from the past.
The Occitanian culture retains characteristics of the ancient Celtic influence, through the use of six or seven hole flutes (fifre) or the bagpipes (piva).
HaCaT cells retained characteristics of proliferative basal keratinocytes [7], where basonuclin was highly expressed [8].
