AP Biology Unit 5: Heredity Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from Unit 5 of AP Biology, focusing on heredity, meiosis, Mendelian and non-Mendelian genetics, and chromosomal inheritance.

Diploid

Refers to a paired set of chromosomes, like in the human genome with 23 pairs resulting in 46 total chromosomes.

Gametes

Specialized cells for reproduction that are haploid, containing only half the genetic content of somatic cells.

Germ Cells

Diploid cells that undergo meiosis to form sperms and eggs in males and females respectively.

Prophase I

The phase in meiosis I where homologous chromosomes pair up to perform crossing over.

Crossing Over

Allows the creation of hybrid chromatids containing genetic information from both parents.

Random Fertilization

The random meeting of a sperm and egg cell, creating a unique individual.

Gene

A region of DNA that encodes for a whole or part of a protein or a particular character like flower color

Alleles

Variants of genes

Phenotype

How an organism physically expresses its genetic component.

Genotype

How we represent genetic component in terms of letters and symbols, e.g., Big P big P or Big P little p.

Dihybrid

An individual heterozygous at both loci.

Incomplete Dominance

An inheritance pattern where two alleles don't interact in a typical dominant/recessive manner, showing a blend of the two expressions.

Codominance

Very similar to incomplete dominance, but both alleles are simultaneously expressed. For example, plants with blue and white flowers produce flowers that are blue with white stripes

Epistasis

When one gene affects the expression of another gene.

Polygenic Inheritance

Multiple genes can affect a single trait, typically seen with quantitative traits on a continuum like height or skin tone.

Gene to Environment Interactions

The extent to which our environment shapes the expression of our genes.

Pedigree

A diagram that shows the inheritance of a trait through multiple generations. Used to determine if a trait is autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, X-linked recessive, or mitochondrial.

Linkage

A situation where independent assortment does not occur, and the ratio skews heavily towards two of the four possible genotypes.