Inheritance Flashcards
What is the genome?
The entirety of an organism’s DNA is called the genome.
What is a gene?
A section of a molecule of DNA that codes for a protein.
What do genes control?
The characteristics of an organism.
What is an allele?
A version of a gene.
What is the phenotype?
The observable characteristic of an organism.
What is the genotype?
The combination of alleles that control each characteristic is called the genotype.
What is a dominant allele?
An allele who’s characteristic is always expressed when present.
What is a recessive allele?
An allele who’s characteristic is only expressed when both alleles are the same.
What does homozygous mean?
Homozygous is when both alleles of a gene are the same
What does heterozygous mean?
Heterozygous is when the alleles of a gene are different.
What is a chromosome?
A thread like structure of DNA, carrying genetic information in the form of genes. They are located in the nucleus of the cell. All cells except for gametes have 23 PAIRS of chromosomes, whereas gametes have 23 chromosomes.
What does polygenic mean?
Polygenic is when a characteristic is controlled by more than one gene.
What two ways can phenotype variation be caused?
It can be genetic or enviromental.
What is discontinuous variation?
When there is only a limited number of types of characteristic that an organism can have. Such as blood group.
What is continuous variation?
When there is a big range of types of characteristic that an organism an have. Such as height.
