Lecture 3 Genetics Terms

Law of independent assortment

Mendel's principle stating that alleles of different genes segregate independently during gamete formation.

Dihybrid crosses

Genetic crosses between individuals that are heterozygous for two distinct traits.

Forked-line diagram

A branching method used to determine expected outcomes and probabilities for multi-gene crosses.

Trihybrid cross

A genetic cross between individuals involving three different traits simultaneously.

Product rule

A probability rule stating that the chance of two independent events occurring together is found by multiplying their individual probabilities.

Multiplication rule

Another name for the product rule used to calculate the joint probability of independent events.

Sum rule

A probability rule stating that the chance of either of two mutually exclusive events occurring is found by adding their individual probabilities.

Conditional probability

The likelihood of an event occurring given that another specific event has already occurred.

Binomial probability

A statistical formula used to calculate the probability of a specific combination of two possible outcomes in multiple trials.

Chi-square test

A statistical test used to compare observed experimental results with expected theoretical values to see if differences are due to chance.

Probability (P) value

The probability that observed deviations from expected results are due strictly to random chance.

Degrees of freedom (df)

The number of independent outcome categories minus one, used in statistical calculations like the chi-square test.