Inheritance Key Terms

Question	Answer
Genotype	genetic make up of an organism
Mutation	any change to the genotype (includes substitution, deletion or addition of bases)
Phenotype	an organism's characteristics resulting from the genes an organism possesses and the environment in which it has developed
Gene	sequence of nucleotide bases in DNA which determines the sequence of amino acids in a protein-a single characteristic
Locus	position of the gene on a chromosome
Alleles	different forms of a gene
Dominant allele	always expressed in the phenotype
Recessive allele	only expressed in the phenotype when 2 copies of the allele are present
Codominant alleles	contribute evenly to the phenotype
Homozygous	two alleles on a homologous pair of chromosomes that are the same
Heterozygous	two alleles on a homologous pair of chromosomes that are different
Epistatic gene	when its presence suppresses the effect of a gene at another locus

Resource summary

	Created by Beccy Stead about 8 years ago