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genetics
what parents pass onto their offspring
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Heredity | The passing of traits from parents to offspring. |
| Trait | A characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring through its genes. |
| Genetics | The scientific study of heredity. |
| Fertilization | Joining of a sperm and an egg. |
| Purebred | The offspring of many generations that have the same traits. |
| Gene | The set of information that controls a trait;a segment of DNA. |
| Alleles | The different forms of a gene. |
| Dominant Allele | An allele whose trait always shows up in the organism when the allele is present. |
| Recessive Allele | An allele that is masked when a dominant allele is present. |
| Hybrid | An organism that has two different alleles for a trait; an organism that is heterozygous for a particular trait. |
| Probability | A number that describes how likely it is that an event will occur. |
| Punnett Square | A chart that shows all the possible combinations of alleles that can result from a genetic cross. |
| Phenotype | An organism's physical appearance, or visible trait. |
| Genotype | An organism's genetic makeup, or allele combinations. |
| Homozygous | Having two identical alleles for a trait. |
| Heterozygous | Having two different alleles for a trait. |
| Codominance | A condition in which neither of two alleles of a gene is a dominant or recessive. |
| Meiosis | The process that occurs in the formation of sex cells (sperm and egg). |
| Messenger RNA | RNA that copies the coded message for DNA from inside the nucleus. |
| Transfer RNA | RNA in the cytoplasm that carries an amino acid to the ribosome. |
| Mutation | A change in a gene or chromosome. |