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Modern Genetic Analysis Glossary
V
Val Valine (an amino acid).
variable A property that may have different values in various cases.
variable region A region in an immunoglobulin molecule that shows many sequence differences between antibodies of different specificities. The variable regions of the light and heavy chains of an immunoglobulin bind antigen.
variance A measure of the variation around the central class of a distribution; the average squared deviation of the observations from their mean value.
variant An individual organism that is recognizably different from an arbitrary standard type in that species.
variate A specific numerical value of a variable.
variation The differences among parents and their offspring or among individuals in a population.
variegation The occurrence within a tissue of sectors with differing phenotypes.
vector In cloning, the plasmid or phage chromosome used to carry the cloned DNA segment.
viability The probability that a fertilized egg will survive and develop into an adult organism.
viral transforming gene A gene within a viral genome that can induce abnormal proliferation of cells in culture and, similarly, can induce tumors in infected whole animals.
virulent phage A phage that cannot become a prophage; infection by such a phage always leads to lysis of the host cell.
VNTR (variable number tandem repeat) A chromosomal locus at which a particular repetitive sequence is present in different numbers in different individuals or in the two different homologs in one diploid individual.

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