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JRA Genetics
Chapter 3 Genetics Vocabulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Genetics | The scientific study of heredity. |
| Trait | A physical characteristic. |
| Heredity | The passing of traits from parent to offspring. |
| Purebred | An organism that always produces offspring with the same form of a trait as the parent. |
| Hybrid | An organism that has two different alleles for their trait. |
| Gene | A factor that controls traits. |
| Allele | A different form 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, or covered up, whenever the dominant allele is present. |
| Probability | The likelihood that a particular event will occur. |
| Punnett Square | A chart that shows all the possible combinations of alleles that result from a genetic cross. |
| Phenotype | An organism's physical appearance, or its visible traits. |
| Genotype | An organism's genetic makeup, or allele combinations. |
| Homozygous | When an organism has two identical alleles for a trait. |
| Heterozygous | When an organism has two different alleles for a trait. |
| Codominance | When an organism's alleles are neither dominant nor recessive. |
| Meiosis | The process by which the number of chromosomes is reduced by half to form sex cells. |
| Protein Synthesis | The production of proteins when the cell uses information from a gene on a chromosome to produce a specific protein. |
| Messenger RNA | A type of RNA that copies the coded message from the DNA in the nucleus and carries the message into the cytoplasm. |
| Transfer RNA | A type of RNA that carries amino acids and adds them to the growing protein. |
| Nitrogen Bases | Adenine pairs with Thymine, and Guanine pairs with Cytosine. (On RNA, there is no Thymine. Adenine pairs with a substance called uracil.) |
| Mutation | Any change in a gene or chromosome. |