Synonyms
Definition
Polymorphism in biology refers to the discontinuous genetic variations leading to the existence of two or more forms, stages, or phenotypes existing in the same species within the same population.
Introduction
The literal meaning of “Polymorphic” is “having multiple forms.” In biology, the word “polymorphic” is generally used in terms of genes. A gene is referred to as polymorphic if more than one allele is present at a specific locus of the gene. Furthermore, for being considered polymorphic, each allele must occur in the population at a minimum of 1%. This phenomenon of occurrence is called polymorphism.
Polymorphism can be subcategorized into two basic types, that is, sexual dimorphism and allelic polymorphism. Sexual dimorphism is when the male and female of a species differ physically or phenotypically like humans, whereas the allelic polymorphism denotes the presence of alternate forms of a gene governing a specific...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barrett, S. C., Jesson, L. K., & Baker, A. M. (2000). The evolution and function of stylar polymorphisms in flowering plants. Annals of Botany, 85(Suppl 1), 253–265.
Crow, J. F. (1993). Felix Bernstein and the first human marker locus. Genetics, 133(1), 4.
Fisher, R. A., Ford, E. B., & Huxley, J. (1939). Taste-testing the anthropoid apes. Nature, 144(3652), 750–750.
Galeotti, P., Rubolini, D., Dunn, P. O., & Fasola, M. (2003). Colour polymorphism in birds: Causes and functions. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 16(4), 635–646.
Meade, M. S., & Earickson, R. J. (2005). Medical geography. New York: Guilford Press.
MHC Sequencing Consortium. (1999). Complete sequence and gene map of a human major histocompatibility complex. Nature, 401(6756), 921–923.
National Human Genome Research Institute. (2020). Crossing over. https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Crossing-Over. Accessed 22 July 2020.
Phillips, T. (2020). Genetic polymorphism – Different does not mean mutated. ThoughtCo. thoughtco.com/genetic-polymorphism-what-is-it-375594. Accessed 30 Jan 2020.
Singh, R. S., & Kulathinal, R. J. (2013). Polymorphism. In Brenner’s encyclopedia of genetics (2nd ed., pp. 398–399). San Diego: Academic Press.
Verrelli, B. C., McDonald, J. H., Argyropoulos, G., Destro-Bisol, G., Froment, A., Drousiotou, A., et al. (2002). Evidence for balancing selection from nucleotide sequence analyses of human G6PD. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 71(5), 1112–1128.
Wang, H., Naghavi, M., Allen, C., Barber, R. M., Bhutta, Z. A., Carter, A., et al. (2016). Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980–2015: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. The Lancet, 388(10053), 1459–1544.
Wright, A. F. (2001). Genetic variation: Polymorphisms and mutations. In Encyclopedia of life sciences. Hoboken: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Neelabh, Gautam, A. (2022). Polymorphic. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_524
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_524
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-55064-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-55065-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences