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Chapter 4 Genetics
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| 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 | the joining of a sperm cell and an egg cell |
| purebred | the offspring of many generations that have the same traits |
| gene | the set of information that controls a trait; a segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait |
| 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 | 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 traits |
| 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 | neither of two alleles of a gene is dominant or recessive |
| meiosis | the process that occurs in the formation of sex cells by which the number of chromosomes is reduced by half |
| messenger RNA | messenger RNA – RNA that copies the coded message from DNA in the nucleus and carries the message into the cytoplasm |
| transfer RNA | RNA in the cytoplasm that carries an amino acid to the ribosome and adds it to the growing protein chain |
| mutation | a change in a gene or chromosome |