Mendel's Law of Dominance

Trait

A specific characteristic that varies from one individual to another.

Law of Dominance

One of Mendel's Laws of Inheritance. This law states an organism has two different alleles for a trait and the allele that is expressed in the phenotype, masking the expression if the other allele is said to be dominant. The allele whose expression is masked is said to be recessive.

Law of Segregation

One of Mendel's laws that states for each inherited trait, there are at least one pair of alleles. This states that during gamete formation each member of an allelic pair separates from the other member to form the genetic make-up of a gamete (sex cell).

Genotype

The genetic Makeup of an organism.

Heredity

The passing on of genetic traits from parents to offspring.

Phenotype

The physical expression of genes.

Offspring

These are decendants of the parent generation.

Recessive Allele

This is a form of a gene that is hidden by another, dominant, form of the same gene.

Homologous Chromosomes

This is a pair of chromosomes having the same genes at the same location.

Allele

This is an alternative form of genes.

Dominant

This is an observable trait of an organism that can mask the recessive trait.

Heterozygous

This is an organism that has two different alleles for the same genetic trait.

Homozygous

This is an organism that has two identical alleles for the same genetic trait.

Independent Assortment

This is one of Mendel's principles that govern the process of genetic inheritance. It states that allele pairs separate independently during the formation of gametes (sex cells). This means that traits are passed to offspring independently of one another.

Inheritance

This is the transfer of characteristics from parent to offspring.