Term | Definition |
heredity | passing on of traits from an organism to its offspring |
chromosomes | hold the genes that pass on the traits, Homo sapiens have 46 |
genes | basic units of heredity- called genotype- represented by letters. Also called alleles |
trait- or - phenotype | the characteristic the genes gave you |
probability | the likelihood that an event will occur- percent out of 100%
Use a punnett square to figure the percentage. |
karyotype | a picture of your chromosomes all lined up from the smallest to the largest size and the last pair are your sex chromosomes |
Nitrogen bases or nucleotides in DNA | Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, Thymine, A-T, C-G |
Replication | when the DNA forms a twin of itself as it unzips and new nitrogen bases attach to the existing nitrogen base of A, T, C, G |
Purebred-Homozygous | the alleles, (strength of the gene), are the same, example= BB or bb |
Hybrid-Heterozygous | the alleles are different, example= Bb |
Dominant | stronger trait in genetics, will 'hide' or 'mask' a recessive trait |
Recessive | weaker trait in genetics |
Incomplete dominance | genes for the same trait that are different but equal in strength, example= RW, rq, the result phenotype will be a blend of the two. |
Mitosis | in asexual reproduction, when a cell duplicates its nuclei, and both nuclei have exactly the same information. |
meiosis | when a cell produces a sex cell which has only Half the information as the parent cell. |
Gregor Mendel | Father of Genetics- Austrian monk who grew pea plants and discovered dominant and recessive traits. |
Punnett Square | A chart showing possible gene combinations in a cross between two organisms genes. Use it to figure the probability of the babies traits. |
Mutation | A change in a gene or chromosome. Can happen naturally or from exposure to toxic matter. |
Double Helix | Shape of the DNA |
James Watson and Francis Crick | Won a Nobel Peace Prize for discovering the shape of DNA |
Rosalind Franklin | Used X-Ray diffraction to take a 'picture' of DNA |
Nucleotide | Has 3 parts: Phosphate, Deoxyribose,(sugar), Nucleic Base of either a A, T, C , G |
sex cells made by meiosis | sperm and eggs |
clone | any organism whose genetic information is identical to that of a parent organism from which it was created |