2.2 inheritance

• acquired traits: traits acquired during a person's lifetime because of experiences, education, and upbringing, such as a scar from a cut or the ability to speak a particular language
• inherited traits: traits genetically passed on from one generation to the next, such as a particular blood type or eye colour
• allele: an alternative form of a gene responsible for a trait
• dominant: referring to a dominant allele that overpowers a recessive allele- an individual only needs one dominant allele for the dominant trait to be expressed
• recessive: referring to a recessive allele that is not expressed when the dominat allele is present- two recessive alleles need to be presentt for the recessive trait to be expressed in an individual
• genotype: a description of the alleles that an individual possesses. this is communicated by using letter to represent the different allele versions
• punnett square: a table that uses the alleles of the parents to indicate all the possible outcomes resulting from gamete fertilization
• homozygous: referring to an organism that has two copies of the allele for a given trait-pp or PP
• heterozygous: referring to an organism that has a dominant allele and a recessive allele for a given trait-Pp
• phenotype: the physical and physiological trains of an organism
• sex-linked inheritance: trait not directly related to the primary of secondary sexy characteristics that are coded by the genes located on the sex chromosomes
• autosomal inheritance: traits controlled by genes founds on the 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes