Genetic Vocabulary

Key Genetics Terms

●Genetics: The study of how traits pass from parents to children

●Vocabulary we'll learn today:

●Dominant and Recessive

●Homozygous and Heterozygous

●Genotype and Phenotype

Dominant vs. Recessive

●Dominant trait: The stronger version that usually shows up

●Marked with a capital letter (B)

●Example: Brown eyes are dominant

Dominant vs. Recessive

●Recessive trait: The hidden version
that needs two copies to show up

○Marked with a lowercase letter (b)

○Example: Blue eyes are recessive

Homozygous vs. Heterozygous

●Homozygous: When both alleles are the same

○BB (both dominant)

○bb (both recessive)

Homozygous vs. Heterozygous

●Heterozygous: When the genes/alleles are different

○Bb (one dominant, one recessive)

Genotype: Your Genetic Code

●Genotype is your hidden genetic makeup

●It's the letters we use to show your genes

●Examples:

○BB = homozygous dominant

○Bb = heterozygous

○bb = homozygous recessive

Phenotype: What We Can See

●Phenotype is how traits look on the outside

●What we can observe with our eyes

●Examples:

○Brown eyes

○Curly hair

○Attached earlobes