Genetics and Evolution Flashcards
What are genes?
DNA sequences that code for heritable traits that can be passed from one generation to the next
What is a locus?
the location of the gene on a specific chromosome
What is a dominant allele?
only one copy of an allele needed to express a given phenotype
What is a recessive allele?
if two copies of an allele are needed to express a given phenotype
What is complete dominance?
when only one dominant and one recessive allele exist for a given gene
What is codominance?
when more than one dominant allele exists for a given gene
What is incomplete dominance?
occurs when a heterozygote expresses a phenotype that is intermediate
What is pentrance?
a population measure defined as the proportion of individuals in the population carrying the allele who actually express the phenotype
What is expressivity?
defined as varying phenotypes despite identical genotypes; constant would mean that all individuals with a given genotype express the same phenotype
What is Mendel’s First Law of Segregation?
Genes exist in alternative forms (alleles) and each organism gets two alleles from each parent. The two alleles segregate during meiosis and that if the alleles are different, one will be silenced.
What is Mendel’s Second Law of Independent Assortment?
states that the inheritance of one gene does not affect the inheritance of another gene because of recombination
What is a gene pool?
all of the alleles that exist within a species
What are wild-type alleles?
alleles are considered “normal” or “natural” and are ubiquitous in the study population
What are mutagens?
substances that cause mutations
What is a mutation?
a change in DNA sequence
What is a transposon?
elements that can insert and remove themselves from the genome
What are point mutations?
occur when one nucleotide in DNA (A,C,T,G) is swapped for another; silent, missense, nonsense
What is a silent mutation?
occur when the change in nucleotide has no effect on the final protein synthesized from the gene; most common from the wobble position
What is a missense mutation?
occur when the change in nucleotide results in substituting one amino acid for another in the final protein
What is nonsense mutation?
occur when the change in nucleotide results in substituting a stop codon for an amino acid in the final protein
What is a frameshift mutation?
occur when nucleotides are inserted into or deleted from the genome
-insertion or deletion mutations
What are chromosomal mutations?
larger-scale mutations in which large segments of DNA are affected
What is a deletion mutation?
occur when a large segment of DNA is lost from a chromosome; small deletion are considered frameshift mutations as described previously
What is a duplication mutation?
occur when a segment of DNA is copied multiple times in the genome
What is an inversion mutation?
occur when a segment of DNA is reversed within a chromosome
What is an insertion mutation?
occur when a segment of DNA is moved from one chromosome to another; small insertion mutations are frameshifts
What is translocation mutation?
occur when a segment of DNA from one chromosome is swapped with a segment of DNA from another chromosome