variant

1. That which, or one who, is variable. 2. Having the tendency to alter or change, exhibit variety or diversity, not conform with, or differ from the type.

- inherited albumin variants [MIM*103600] types of human serum albumin, distinguished by characteristic mobility patterns on electrophoresis; each type is due to a mutation of a gene controlling albumin synthesis; the mutant genes are codominant with the normal gene for albumin A, and the group forms a system of genetic polymorphism; types include: albumin b (slow), found occasionally in persons of European ancestry; albumin Ghent (fast), found first at Ghent, Belgium; albumin Mexico (slow), found in Indians of Mexico and the southwestern United States; albumin Naskapi (fast), found in the Naskapi and other Indians of northern North America; and albumin Reading (fast), found first at Reading, England.

- L-phase variants bacterial variants that do not have rigid cell walls but that may contain varying amounts of cell wall material; they are spherical to coccobacillary in shape and vary in size from small bodies that pass through filters which retain bacteria to bodies that are larger than the bacterial form; they are Gram-negative and resistant to penicillin. The variants differ greatly from the parent bacterial cells in mode of reproduction, physiology, growth requirements, and individual and colonial morphology; they are generally considered to be nonpathogenic, even if derived from a pathogenic bacterium. [L. fr. Lister Institute]

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var·i·ant 'ver-ē-ənt, 'var- adj manifesting variety or deviation: exhibiting variation <\variant forms of the disease>

variant n one that exhibits variation from a type, norm, or wild type: MUTATION also one whose behavior is at variance with the norms of society

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var·i·ant (varґe-ənt) 1. something that differs in some characteristic from the class to which it belongs, as a variant of a disease, trait, species, etc. 2. exhibiting such variation.