Inheritance and selection Flashcards
What is a Gene?
A sequence of bases on a DNA molecule that codes for a protein(polypeptide), which results in a characteristic e.g. the gene for eye colour.
What is an Allele?
An alternative version of a gene.
What is a genotype?
The genetic constitution of an organism - the alleles an organism has e.g. BB or Bb or bb for eye colour.
What is a phenotype?
The expression of the genetic constitution and its interaction with the environment (an organisms characteristics e.g. brown eyes)
What is a dominant allele?
An allele whose characteristics appears in the phenotype even when there is only 1 copy. Dominant alleles are shown by a capital letter.
What is a recessive allele?
An allele whose characteristics only appears in the phenotype if two copies are present. Recessive alleles are shown by a lower case letter.
What are codominant alleles?
Alleles that are both expressed in the phenotype - neither one is recessive, e.g. the alleles for haemoglobin.
What is a locus?
The locus is the fixed position of a gene on a chromosome.
homozygote
An organism that carries two copies of the same allele e.g. BB or bb
Heterozygote?
An organism that carries two different alleles. e.g. Bb.
What is monohybrid inheritance?
The inheritance of a single characteristic/gene controlled by different alleles.
You can figure out the frequency of one allele if you know the frequency of the other.
What equation is it? p + q = 1.
what does the P represent?
the frequency of the DOMINANT allele.
What does Q represent?
the frequency of the recessive allele.
You can figure out the frequency of one genotype if you know the frequencies of the others. What equation is it?
p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1