genetics vocabulary

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What does homozygous mean?

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An organism is homozygous when it has two identical alleles for a particular gene (e.g., TT or tt).

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What does heterozygous mean?

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An organism is heterozygous when it has two different alleles for a particular gene (e.g., Tt).

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What is a homozygous recessive genotype?

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A homozygous recessive genotype consists of two recessive alleles (e.g., aa or bb).

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What is a genotype?

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Genotype refers to the genetic makeup of an organism, specifically the alleles it possesses (e.g., Tt, BB, rr).

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What is a phenotype?

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Phenotype is the physical or visible appearance of an organism, determined by its genotype (e.g., tall or short plants).

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What is an allele?

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An allele is a variant form of a gene that can produce different traits (e.g., T and t are alleles for height in pea plants).

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What is a dominant allele?

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A dominant allele is an allele that expresses its trait even when only one copy is present (e.g., T in Tt).

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What is a recessive allele?

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A recessive allele is an allele that only expresses its trait when two copies are present (e.g., t in tt).

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What is a trait?

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A trait is a specific characteristic of an organism, such as eye color, height, or flower color.

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What is a gene?

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A gene is a segment of DNA that contains the instructions for building a specific protein, which influences a trait.