変異

• 読み: へんい
• ローマ字: hen'i
• 漢字の分解: 変 (hen) — change, unusual; 異 (i) — different, strange, anomalous
• 発音: /hen.i/

意味

Variation; mutation; anomaly. In biology, a heritable change in genetic material; more broadly, any deviation from the normal or expected form.

In genetics and evolutionary biology, 変異 refers to mutations at the DNA level as well as phenotypic variation within populations. Distinguished from 突然変異 (sudden point mutation), 変異 can encompass broader patterns of natural variation. Also used in linguistics (language variation), virology (pathogen variant strains), and medicine. A key concept in Darwinian natural selection.

例文

1. ウイルスの変異によって、既存のワクチンが効果を失うことがある。
2. この地域の植物は気候変動に応じた変異を数世代かけて示してきた。
3. 遺伝子変異が特定の疾患リスクを高めることが最新研究で明らかになった。

使い方ガイド

場面: genetics, biology, virology, medicine

トーン: scientific

起源と歴史

Compound of 変 (change) + 異 (different, unusual). Used in scientific Japanese since the Meiji period as a translation for biological variation and mutation concepts from Western biology.

文化的背景

時代: Meiji–Modern

世代: Adults

社会的背景: Academic/Medical