heredity Flashcards
Heredity
Heredity is the passing of phenotypic traits from parents to their offspring, either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction.
Dominant Trait
In genetics, a trait that will appear in the offspring if one of the parents contributes it. ( Compare recessive trait.) Note : 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.
Recessive Trait
The first allele is dominant and the second allele is recessive. For genes on an autosome (any chromosome other than a sex chromosome), the alleles and their associated traits are autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive.
Genes
A gene is the basic physical and functional unit of heredity. Genes, which are made up of DNA, act as instructions to make molecules called proteins. In humans, genes vary in size from a few hundred DNA bases to more than 2 million bases.
Alleles
An allele is a variant form of a gene. Some genes have a variety of different forms, which are located at the same position, or genetic locus, on a chromosome. Humans are called diploid organisms because they have two alleles at each genetic locus, with one allele inherited from each parent.
Phenotype
A phenotype is an individual’s observable traits, such as height, eye color, and blood type. The genetic contribution to the phenotype is called the genotype. Some traits are largely determined by the genotype, while other traits are largely determined by environmental factors.
Probability is the measure of the likeliness that an event will occur. Probability is quantified as a number between 0 and 1 (where 0 indicates impossibility and 1 indicates certainty). The higher the probability of an event, the more certain we are that the event will occur.
Probability is the measure of the likeliness that an event will occur. Probability is quantified as a number between 0 and 1 (where 0 indicates impossibility and 1 indicates certainty). The higher the probability of an event, the more certain we are that the event will occur.
Homologous chromosomes
One chromosome of each homologous pair comes from the mother (called a maternal chromosome) and one comes from the father (paternal chromsosome). Homologous chromosomes 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.
Meiosis
Mitosis is a part of the cell cycle in which chromosomes in a cell nucleus are separated into two identical sets of chromosomes, each in its own nucleus.
Sex Chromosomes
a chromosome involved with determining the sex of an organism, typically one of two kinds.
Pedigree
the recorded ancestry, especially upper-class ancestry, of a person or family.
dna
deoxyribonucleic acid, a self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the carrier of genetic information.
the fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of someone or something, especially when regarded as unchangeable.
“diversity is part of the company’s DNA”
Nucleotide
A nucleotide is one of the structural components, or building blocks, of DNA and RNA. A nucleotide consists of a base (one of four chemicals: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine) plus a molecule of sugar and one of phosphoric acid.
RNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule implicated in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes. RNA and DNA are nucleic acids, and, along with proteins and carbohydrates, constitute the three major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life.
Mutations
n biology, a mutation is a permanent change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA or other genetic elements
