Definition of Genetic Polymorphism



Genetic polymorphism is the occurrence of two or more than two alleles in a population simultaneously. The frequency of each allele in the population is one or greater than one. Genetic polymorphism helps us in determining the variations and diversity present among individuals. Pathogenesis, the progression of diseases and the diversity in phenotypes all are studied under genetic polymorphism.

 


The identification of polymorphism in genes can be done in a number of methods such as employing polymerase chain reaction in order to amplify the sequence of the genes. After the amplification, the presence of mutations and the polymorphisms can be determined by DNA sequencing.

 

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