Heredity and Genetics Vocabulary (Part 2)
1. Traits: A characteristic that an organism can pass on to its
offspring through its genes.
2. Heredity: The passing of genes from parents to offspring:
the genes are expressed in the traits of the offspring.
3. Inheritance: receiving genetic qualities that are passed from
parent to offspring.
4. Genetics: The scientific study of heredity.
5. Allele: A form of a gene for a specific trait.
6. Offspring: The new organisms produced by one or two parent
organisms.
7. Punnett square: A chart used to show all the ways genes from
two parents can combine and be passed to offspring; used to
predict all genotypes that are possible.
Punnett square example using R to represent the alleles.
8. Dominant: Describes the allele that determines the
phenotype of an individual organism when two different copies
are present in the genotype.
9. Recessive: A term that describes an allele that in not
expressed (masked or hidden) when combined with a dominant
form of the gene.
10. Genotype: The genetic makeup of an organism: all the genes
that an organism has.
11. Phenotype: The observable characteristics or traits of an
organism.
