Basic Genetic Terms for Teachers

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BasicGeneticTerms 

Usetheavailablereferenceresourcestocompletethetablebelow.Afterfindingoutthedefinitionofeachword,rewritethe

definitionusingyourownwords(middlecolumn),andprovideanexampleofhowyoumayusetheword(rightcolumn).

GeneticTerms Definitioninyourownwords Anexample

Allele

Differentformsofagene,whichproduce

variationsinageneticallyinheritedtrait.

Differentallelesproducedifferenthaircolors—brown,

blond,red,black,etc.

Genes

GenesarepartsofDNAandcarryhereditary

informationpassedfromparentstochildren.

Genescontainblue‐printforeachindividualforheror

hisspecifictraits.

Dominant

Dominantversion(allele)ofageneshowsits

specifictraitevenifonlyoneparentpassed

thegenetothechild.

Whenachildinheritsdominantbrown‐hairgeneform

(allele)fromdad,thechildwillhavebrownhair.

Recessive

Recessivegeneshowsitsspecifictraitwhen

bothparentspassthegenetothechild.

Whenachildinheritsrecessiveblue‐eyegeneform

(allele)frombothmomanddad,thechildwillhaveblue

eyes.

Homozygous

Twoofthesameformofagene—onefrom

momandtheotherfromdad.

Inheritingthesameblueeyegeneformfromboth

parentsresultinahomozygousgene.

Heterozygous

Twodifferentformsofagene—onefrom

momandtheotherfromdadaredifferent.

Inheritingdifferenteyecolorgeneformsfrommom

anddadresultinaheterozygousgene.

Genotype

Internalheredityinformationthatcontain

geneticcode.

Blueeyeandbrowneyehavedifferentgenotypes—one

iscodedforblueandtheotherforbrown.

Phenotype

Outwardlyexpressedtraitsorcharacteristics.

Bothhavingornothavingawidow’speakare

phenotypes.

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MendelianInheritance



Asimplegeneticrulewhereageneonly

comesindominantorrecessiveforms.

SomegenetictraitsfollowMendelianInheritance,while

othergenetictraitsfollowdifferentinheritance

patternsorrules.

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