Discontinuous Variation

Variation can be continuous or discontinuous.Discontinuous variation is variation that can only result in one of a set of discrete values with no in-between values.Discontinuous variation tends to occur as a result of changes in only one gene (monogenic).An example is sex which can only be either male or female.Another example is shape in bacteria. Bacteria can be spherical(cocci), rod-shaped(bacilli), spiral (spirilla), comma-shaped(vibrio) or corkscrew-shaped(spirochaetes).A third example is ABO blood group in humans: individuals can be group A, group B, group AB or group O.Any data collected would be qualitative/categoric and is best represented in a pie chart or bar chart.