Patterns of Inheritance - Lecture Review

These flashcards cover key vocabulary from the lecture on Patterns of Inheritance, including concepts from biodiversity, adaptations, Darwin's natural selection, Mendel's genetics, and genetic terminology.

Biodiversity

The variety of life on Earth, considering factors like functional, ecosystem, species, and genetic diversity.

Functional Diversity

A factor in biodiversity conservation, referring to the cycling of nutrients.

Eco or Habitat Diversity

A factor in biodiversity conservation, referring to the niches available for species.

Species Diversity

A factor in biodiversity conservation, referring to the variety of microorganisms, plants, and animals.

Genetic Diversity

A factor in biodiversity conservation, referring to the variety of genes within a species.

Variation

Slight differences in inherited traits among individuals in a population, which can be caused by mutation.

Adaptation

An inherited trait that increases an organism’s chance of surviving and reproducing in a particular environment.

Structural Adaptations

Adaptations that involve physical characteristics, such as color or shape.

Functional Adaptations

Adaptations that involve internal systems affecting an organism’s physiology or biochemistry.

Behavioral Adaptations

Adaptations that involve the ways an organism behaves or acts, such as migration.

Natural Selection

The process described by Charles Darwin where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

Descent with Modifications

Darwin's theory that each organism is born slightly different from its parents and other members of its species, leading to variation over generations.

Survival of the Fittest

A concept within natural selection stating that offspring with more adaptive traits have a better chance of surviving and reproducing.

Genetics

The scientific study of heredity, or how traits are passed from parents to offspring.

Heredity

The process by which traits are passed from parents to offspring.

Traits

Distinguishing qualities or characteristics of an organism.

Gregor Mendel

A 19th-century monk known as the 'Father of Genetics' for his experimental approach to studying heredity in pea plants.

Asexual Reproduction

A method of reproduction where one organism makes a copy of its genes and itself.

Sexual Reproduction

A method of reproduction where offspring receive half of their genes from an egg cell and the other half from a sperm cell.

True-breeding Plant

A plant that, when self-fertilized, only produces offspring with the same traits as itself.

Monohybrid Cross

A cross-pollination experiment between two true-breeding plants that differ in only one specific trait.

P Generation

The parental generation in the cross pollination between two true-breeding plants that differ in a particular trait.

F1 Generation

The First Filial generation, representing the hybrid offspring of two different true-breeding parental varieties.

F2 Generation

The Second Filial generation, representing the offspring produced by self-fertilization of F1 generation plants.

Genes

Mendel's 'factors' today; segments of DNA that control how organisms develop and pass traits.

Alleles

Alternative forms of a gene, inherited one from each parent.

Homozygous

Describes an individual with two identical alleles for a specific trait.

Heterozygous

Describes an individual with two different alleles for a specific trait.

Dominant Trait

The trait that is expressed or shows in a heterozygous individual, masking the presence of the recessive allele.

Recessive Trait

The trait that is hidden or not expressed in a heterozygous individual but can reappear in subsequent generations.

Principle of Segregation

Mendel's principle stating that the two alleles for a heritable character segregate (separate) during gamete formation.