Genes & Environment Flashcards
The genetic endowment that members of a particular species have in common; a contributor to universal species traits and patterns of maturation.
species heredity
The evolutionary principle that individuals who have characteristics advantageous for survival in a particular environment are most likely to survive and reproduce. Over many generations, this process of “survival of the fittest” will lead to changes in a species and the development of new species.
natural selection
Change in a species achieved not through biological evolution but through learning and passing on from one generation to the next new ways of adapting to the environment.
cultural evolution
The moment of fertilization, when a sperm penetrates an ovum, forming a zygote.
conception
A single cell formed at conception from the union of a sperm and an ovum.
zygote
A threadlike structure made up of genes; in humans, there are ?
chromosome
46 in the nucleus of each cell
The process in which a germ cell divides, producing sperm or ova; in humans, the products of meiosis normally contain ?.
meiosis
23 chromosomes
The process in which a cell duplicates its chromosomes and then divides into two genetically
identical daughter cells.
mitosis
Molecule whose chemical code makes up chromosomes and serves as our genetic endowment; it is made up of sequences of the chemicals ?
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid
A (adenine), C (cytosine), G (guanine), and
T (thymine).
One of the possible variants of a particular gene.
allele
A massive, government-sponsored effort to decipher
the human genetic code.
Human Genome Project
A process in which genetic material is exchanged between pairs of chromosomes during meiosis.
crossing over
A chromosomal portrait created by staining chromosomes, photographing them under a high-power microscope, and arranging them into a predetermined pattern.
karyotype
The genetic endowment that an individual inherits.
genotype
The way in which a person’s genotype is expressed in observable or measurable characteristics.
phenotype
The activation of particular genes in particular cells of the body at particular times in life.
gene expression
The genetic mechanism through which a characteristic is influenced by only one pair of genes, one gene from the mother and its partner from the father.
single gene-pair inheritance
A condition in which a stronger gene fails to mask all the effects of a weaker partner gene; a phenotype results that is similar but not identical to the effect of the stronger gene.
incomplete dominance
In genetics, an instance in which two different but equally powerful genes produce a phenotype in which both genes are expressed.
codominance
An attribute determined by a gene that appears on one of the two types of sex chromosomes, usually the X chromosome.
sex-linked characteristic