Question | Answer |
genetics | The study of the inheritance of traits from one generation to the next. |
cross | The mating of organisms to test how they inherit traits |
allele | One form of a gene for particular trait |
purebred | Having the same alleles for a particular trait |
hybrid | Having two different alleles for a particular trait |
dominant | The characteristic that is expressed even when a recessive allele is present |
recessive | The characteristic that is expressed only in the absence of a dominant allele |
phenotype | An organism's physical characteristics; the physical expression of an organism's genes |
genotype | An organism's genetic makeup |
Punnett square | A diagram used to visualize genetic crosses |
incomplete dominance | A type of inheritance in which the alleles for a particular characteristic are neither dominant nor recessive, resulting in a "blending" of the two expressions of the gene |
codominance | The expression (but not blending) of both alleles for a trait in an organism |
polygenic inheritance | An inheritance pattern in which two or more genes work together to produce a single trait |
multiple alleles | An inheritance pattern in which there are more than two possible alleles for a single trait, such as human ABO blood types |
x chromosome | The female sex chromosome |
y chromosome | The male sex chromosome |
sex-linked trait | A characteristic that is coded for by a gene on the X chromosome or the Y chromosome |
carrier | An individual who has one allele for a recessive trait and thus does not exhibit that trait but can pass the allele for the trait on to its offspring |