Sequence variations are changes of the genetic material, usually DNA, of an organism. They are important to increase the variance of the genetic pool of species but may also lead to severe hereditary diseases like Huntington disease, Cystic fibrosis or Hemophilia. Two terms are commonly distinguished when referring to variations on the DNA level: mutation and polymorphism. Polymorphism are alterations with a minor allele frequency of ≥ 1 % in a particular population. Variations with a lower frequency are usually called mutation. However, the term mutation is also often used to imply a deleterious effect of a sequence variation without any knowledge about the underlying frequency distribution. Throughout this publication, we use the term variation to describe arbitrary changes in a genomic sequence while variation mention refers to the textual description of a variation. Differences in a single nucleotide between members of one species are referred to as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). SNPs are a subclass of sequence variations, encompassing single base exchanges, single base deletions and single base insertions.
I think, anything which is away from the degeneracy of the genetic code.
Any shifting in the sequence or the type of DNA nucleotides, even if it was on the single base level.
the following thread is very informative
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_difference_between_a_SNP_and_a_mutation
Sequence variations are changes of the genetic material, usually DNA, of an organism. They are important to increase the variance of the genetic pool of species but may also lead to severe hereditary diseases like Huntington disease, Cystic fibrosis or Hemophilia. Two terms are commonly distinguished when referring to variations on the DNA level: mutation and polymorphism. Polymorphism are alterations with a minor allele frequency of ≥ 1 % in a particular population. Variations with a lower frequency are usually called mutation. However, the term mutation is also often used to imply a deleterious effect of a sequence variation without any knowledge about the underlying frequency distribution. Throughout this publication, we use the term variation to describe arbitrary changes in a genomic sequence while variation mention refers to the textual description of a variation. Differences in a single nucleotide between members of one species are referred to as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). SNPs are a subclass of sequence variations, encompassing single base exchanges, single base deletions and single base insertions.
Variations, on the other hand, are the differences observed among members of same species.
Genetic variations can be classified on the basis of the type of cells involved into Somatogenic (acquired variatons) and Blastogenic (germinal variations).
Blastogenic variations can be further grouped into Continuous ones and Discontinuous ones.
Continuous variations are minor variations developed due to crossing over and random fertilisation (sexual reproduction). These do not have a role in evolution.
On the contrary dicontinuous variation are large sized sudden variations caused due to MUTATIONS.
As is clear, mutation is 'one' of the factors affecting genetic variation. So, obviously they aren't same.
In case of one nucleotide changes, everything you find in your sequence different from reference sequence is termed SNVs (single nucleotide variants). Then you must distinguish somatic mutations from polymorphisms (SNPs) by different tools: searching in databases (dbSNP, mutation databases), comparing with germline DNA (in case of human genome) or search in literature what was described previously. Of course, you can find indels (insertions and deletions) of several bases and if it is frameshift, it is always mutation. Hope, that is clear.
see the following link about the distinction between DNA lesion and DNA mutation :
Article Dangerous lesions : a DNA lesion is not a DNA mutation
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