Mendel's Laws of Inheritance

inheritance

the process by which genetic traits are passed to offspring

characters

observable traits in an organism

trait

a specific characteristic of an organism determined by genes

self-fertilization

the process by which an organism’s own gametes combine to produce offspring

hybridization

the process of mating or crossing two individuals

cross

a controlled mating of two organisms

genes

Segments of DNA that have information for building molecules or RNA

alleles

different versions of a gene that can exist within a specific chromosome

phenotype

the observable traits of an organism

Law of Independent Assortment

the alleles of different genes assort independently of each other during the process that gives rise to gametes

wild-type allele

an prevalent allele in a population

incomplete dominance

when a heterozygote exhibits an intermediate phenotype (ex red x white = pink)

Codominance

when a heterozygote simultaneously expresses two alleles (ex white x black = white w black stripes)

continuous variation

traits that show continuous variation over a range of phenotypes (ex weight)

phenotype plasticity

capacity of an organism to develop several phenotypes depending on the environment

norm of reaction

phenotypic range for a specific genotype under different environmental conditions