Mendelian Genetics

• Chracteristic


  a feature or quality belonging to something and serves to identify it
• Trait


  a genetically determined chracteristic
• Gene


  a unit of heredity transferred from parent to offspring, which determines a chracteristic of an offspring
• Allele


  an alternate form of a gene that comes from a mutation
• Somatic Cell


  any body cell
• Germ Cell (Gamete)


  a cell that develops into a reproductive cell (egg or sperm)
• Dominant


  the trait that is expressed and shown
• Recessive


  the trait that is there in the genetic info but not expressed
• Homozgous


  having two identical alleles of a particular gene
• Heterozygous


  having two different alleles of a particular gene
• Genotype


  the genetic makeup of an organism that determines its phenotype
• Phenotype


  the observable chracteristic of an individual
• Punnett Square


  a diagram used to predict the genotypes of a cross breeding experiment
• Carrier


  a person who has a copy of a mutated gene that could cause illness
• Complete Dominance


  when the dominant allele completly cancels out the recessive allele
• Incomplete Dominance


  when both alleles aren't completly dominant, creating a new phenotype
• Codominance


  when both alleles are expressed separatly to show different traits
• Heredity


  the passing on of genes from parent to offspring
• Sex-Linked Trait


  traits that are influenced by genes carried on the sex chromosomes
• Blood Type


  a variation of blood; A, B, O, and AB
• Pedigree


  a chart that shows the inheritance of a trait or health condition through generations
• Polygenic


  a characteristic influenced by two or more genes (height, skin color)
• Gregor Mendel


  the "father" of genetics; responsible for creating the laws governing the inheritance of traits, and found offspring often inherit traits from their parents
• On what chromosomes are sex-linked traits typically found?

  X-chromosomes
• Example of a sex-linked trait

  Colorblindness
• What causes most human genetic disorders?

  Genetic mutations
• 3 alleles for bllod type

  A,B,O
• Genotype for blood type O

  OO;can only be inherited if both parents contain the O genotype
• Probability in trait expression

  The probability of a trait being expressed is dependent upon its frequency and how often it showed up in the parents
• Law of Dominance


  recessive traits are always masked by a dominant trait
• Law of Segregation


  two alleles segregate during gamete formation so each gamete recieves 1 or 2 factors
• Law of Independent Assortment

  the alleles of different genes get sorted into gametes independently of one another