cryptic

Anything hidden. 1. Structurally heterozygous individuals that are not identifiable as they do not show abnormal meiotic chromosome pairing configurations ('cryptic structural hybrids'). 2. A form of polymorphism controlled by recessive genes ('cryptic polymorphism '). 3. Any mutation which is exposed by a sensitizing mutation and otherwise poorly detected (such mutations probably escape detection because of the plasticity of composition of the corresponding polypeptide). 4. Phenotypically very similar species (cryptic species) which do not hybridize under normal conditions. 5. Cryptic genetic variation refers to the existence of, for example, alleles conferring high performance for a trait, in a breed that has low performance for that trait.