heredity Flashcards
Heredity is the passing of phenotypic traits from parents to their offspring
heredity
In humans, dark hair is a dominant trait; if one parent contributes a gene for dark hair and the other contributes a gene for light hair, the child will have dark hair.
dominant trait
The unit of heredity of all organisms is called a gene, and it can have many different versions called alleles
recessive trait
is the basic physical and functional unit of heredity
genes
is a variant form of a gene
alleles
is an individual’s observable traits, such as height, eye color, and blood type
phenotype
is an individual’s collection of genes
genotype
is the measure of the likeliness that an event will occur.
probability
are similiar but not identical. Each carries the same genes in the same order, but the alleles for each trait may not be the same.
homologous chromosomes
a type of cell division that results in four daughter cells each with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell, as in the production of gametes and plant spores.
meiosis
a chromosome involved with determining the sex of an organism, typically one of two kinds.
sex chromosomes
the record of descent of an animal, showing it to be purebred.
pedigree
the fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of someone or something, especially when regarded as unchangeable.
DNA
is one of the structural components, or building blocks, of DNA and RNA
Nucleotide
ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid present in all living cells. Its principal role is to act as a messenger carrying instructions from
RNA
