Download Mrs. Deringerʼs Vocabulary for Heredity Unit

Mrs. Deringerʼs
Vocabulary for Heredity Unit
1. traits - characteristics
2. genetics - the study of heredity
3. Gregor Mendel - father of genetics
4. allele - different forms of a single gene
5. dominant allele - a variation of a gene that masks a recessive allele. It is
represented by a capital letter when doing Punnett Squares.
6. recessive allele - a variation of a gene that is hidden by a dominant
allele. It is represented by a lower case letter when doing Punnett Squares.
7. genes - segments of DNA that carry hereditary information from the
parents to the offspring. They are the codes for proteins and are found on
chromosomes.
8. genotype - an organism’s genetic make up. The two alleles that make
up the gene. For example TT, or Bb, or Yy.
9. phenotype - the physical characteristic of an organism. For eacmple:
brown hair , blue eyes, tongue roller. It is the trait that is physically seen.
10. pure bred - both allels for the gene are the same. For example: BB, bb,
or tt, or YY.
Mrs. Deringerʼs
Vocabulary for Heredity Unit
11. hybrid - One allele for the gene is dominant and one is recessive.
Hybrid genotypes always lead to dominant phenotypes.
12. heredity - the passing on of traits from parents to offspring.
13. Punnett Squares - a chart used to help you figure out the probability of
receiving a trait.
14. probability - in genetics, probability is the chance of getting a certain
genotype or phenotype.