Heredity is the passing of phenotypic traits from parents to their offspring, either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction. This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve through the natural selection of specific phenotype traits.
Examples of Heredity:
- The ability to curl your tongue
- Double jointed
- If your hair forms a widow's peak
"Dominant traits" are referenced in the study of genetics, which is a branch of biology that deals with the heredity and variation of organisms. A "dominance relationship" refers to how the alles for a locus interact to produce a phenotype. In other words, when an organism has a heterozygous allele pair, the trait that is expressed in the phenotype is "dominant."
Genotypes and Phenotypes
Genotypes and Phenotypes
- Genotype describes the genetic constitution of an individual
- Phenotype describes the total physical appearance of an organism
- Examples of Genotype and Phenotype:
- The genotype/phenotype distinction was proposed by Wilhelm Johannsen in 1911 to make clear the difference beween an organism's heredity and what that heredity produces. The genotype is observed by looking at DNA, the phenotype observed through the outward appearance of the organism. Some genes only express a given phenotype in certain environmental conditions; some phenotypes could be the result of a certain combination of genotypes.
- When a pair of alleles (one half of each pair comes from each parent) is the same, they are called "homozygous"; when a pair of alleles are not the same, they are called "heterozygous."
Homozygous: having identical pairs of genes for any given pair of hereditary characteristics (ex. AA)
Heterozygous: Having dissimilar pair of genes (ex. Aa)
Heterozygous: Having dissimilar pair of genes (ex. Aa)