Hypervariable may refer to:
*Hypervariable sequence, a segment of a
chromosome
A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...
characterised by considerable variation in the number of
tandem repeat
In genetics, tandem repeats occur in DNA when a pattern of one or more nucleotides is repeated and the repetitions are directly adjacent to each other, e.g. ATTCG ATTCG ATTCG, in which the sequence ATTCG is repeated three times.
Several protein ...
s at one or more loci
*Hypervariable locus, a locus with many
allele
An allele is a variant of the sequence of nucleotides at a particular location, or Locus (genetics), locus, on a DNA molecule.
Alleles can differ at a single position through Single-nucleotide polymorphism, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), ...
s; especially those whose variation is due to variable numbers of tandem repeats
*
Hypervariable region
A hypervariable region (HVR) is a location within a sequence where polymorphisms frequently occur. It is used in two contexts:
* In the case of nucleic acids, an HVR is where base pairs frequently change. This can be due to a change in the number ...
(HVR), a chromosomal segment characterized by multiple alleles within a population for a single genetic locus
{{disambig
Genetics