Standard variant of gene lacking final base is equivalent (8)
I believe the answer is:
parallel
'is equivalent' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'standard variant of gene lacking final base' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'standard' could be 'par' (standard of play in golf) and 'par' is found within the answer.
'gene' could be 'allel' (I've seen this before) and 'allel' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parallel that I've seen before include "One of the imaginary lines around the Earth" , "Analogy; line of latitude" , "Going in the same direction but always the same distance apart" , "Similarity, comparison" , "bars in gym?" .)