Genetic Key Terms
There are many key terms associated with the inheritance topic
- A gene is a short length of DNA found on a chromosome that can code for a particular characteristic (expressed by the formation of different proteins)
- Alleles are variations of the same gene
- As we have two copies of each chromosome, we have two copies of each gene and therefore two alleles for each gene
- One of the alleles is inherited from the mother and the other from the father
- This means that the alleles do not have to ‘say’ the same thing
- For example, two copies of a particular gene could contribute to eye colour but one allele could code for brown eyes and one allele could code for blue eyes
- The observable characteristics of an organism (seen just by looking - like eye colour, or found – like blood type) is called the phenotype
- The combination of alleles that control each characteristic is called the genotype
- Alleles can be dominant or recessive
- A dominant allele only needs to be inherited from one parent in order for the characteristic to show up in the phenotype
- A recessive allele needs to be inherited from both parents in order for the characteristic to show up in the phenotype.
- If there is only one recessive allele, it will remain hidden and the dominant characteristic will show
- If the two alleles of a gene are the same, we describe the individual as being homozygous (homo = same)
- Homozygous dominant means having two copies of the dominant allele
- Homozygous recessive means having two copies of the recessive allele
- If the two alleles of a gene are different, we describe the individual as being heterozygous (hetero = different)
- When completing genetic diagrams, alleles are abbreviated to single letters
- The dominant allele is given a capital letter and the recessive allele is given the same letter, but lower case
Alleles are different forms of the same gene. You can only inherit two alleles for each gene, and they can be the same (homozygous) or different (heterozygous)
- We cannot always tell the genotype of an individual for a particular characteristic just by looking at the phenotype – a phenotype associated with a dominant allele will be seen in both a dominant homozygous and a dominant heterozygous genotype
Key Terms & Definitions Table
Examiner Tip
Whether an allele is dominant or recessive does not affect the mechanism of inheritance of the allele.
Many students think that the dominant allele dominates the recessive allele preventing it from being expressed or that the recessive allele is the result of the dominant allele being absent (neither of these is true!) Whether an allele is dominant or recessive depends on the particulars of the proteins they code for.
