karyotype A genotype that describes what is known about variation in a genome at a gross structural level, in terms of the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell. Karyotypes describe structural variation across a genome at the level of chromosomal morphology and banding patterns detectable in stained chromosomal spreads. This coarser level does not capture more granular levels of variation commonly represented in other forms of genotypes (e.g. specific alleles and sequence alterations). A base karyotype representing a genome with no known structural variation can be as simple as '46XY', but karyotypes typically contains some gross variant component (such as a chromosome duplication or translocation). Derived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyotype (accessed 2017-03-28) genomic genotype