Life Science - Genetics Unit

Studying vocab words

Characteristics

Features of an organism.

Traits

Different versions of characteristics.

Inherited

Traits passed down from the parents to their children.

Genes

Inherited bits of information passed down directly from the parent cells to the child cells.

Syndrome

A condition that causes a pattern in physical changes.

Genetic Disease

A disease or disorder that is inherited genetically.

Asexual Reproduction

An organism making an exact copy of itself.

Mutation (1)

A random genetic change that causes the offspring to have a different trait from the parents.

Sexual Reproduction

An organism inheriting traits from two parents.

Fertilization

The union of the sperm and an egg.

Clone

An offspring produced by asexual reproduction.

Dominant (“Seen”)

Relationship between alleles of a single gene that can be seen.

Genetics

Branch of biology that deals with heredity & inherited traits.

Recessive (“Hidden”)

A trait expressed only without a dominant trait present.

Alleles (Big T, little t)

2 or more genes which control the same characteristics.

Punnet Square

A diagram to show how likely each outcome of a breeding experiment.

Homozygous (“Same” — Purebred)

An organism with only one kind of allele for a characteristic.

Heterozygous (“Different” — Hybrid)

An organism with alleles for 2 different traits.

Chromosomes

A linear strand of DNA that carries the genes.

Mutations (2)

Before a cell divides, a mistake is made in a gene when DNA is applied.