genetic variability

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Related to genetic variability: Genetic diversity, heritability

genetic variability

1. The range of minor alterations present in a genome, such as the number of diverse alleles of a specific gene that are found as a result of small mutations in the DNA of a species.

2. The expression of those diverse genes in living organisms and their impact on health or disease.

genetic variability

a range of phenotypes for a particular CHARACTER produced by alternative alleles of one or more genes, the range containing discrete groups (see QUALITATIVE INHERITANCE or a continuous spectrum of types (see POLYGENIC INHERITANCE). Genetic variability arises initially by MUTATION and is maintained by sexual reproduction involving CROSSING OVER in MEIOSIS. Such variation is the raw material for NATURAL SELECTION to act upon, ensuring that the best-adapted variants are most likely to reproduce.

Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005

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"Pureblooded" Florida panthers often suffer from heart and reproductive system defects, the result of decades of inbreeding, leading some scientists to maintain that the best way to preserve the subspecies is to hybridize them with Western cougars, enhancing the breed's genetic variability.

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Fitness the ability to tope with prevailing environmental conditions, and depends on the retention of sufficient genetic variability avoid inbreeding depression and genetic drift over the short- to mid-term (decades Adaptability is necessary for the long-term persistence of a population and involves the ability to evolve.

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The phenomenon suggests a genetic variability in the population.

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stylirostris, a more coastal species, showed a north-south clinelike pattern in its genetic variability parameters: [P.sub.95] from 15.63% to 31.25% and [H.sub.e] from 0.038 to 0.086.

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This genetic variability may account for our findings."

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