| A | B |
|---|
| heredity | the passing of traits from parents to offspring |
| trait | a characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring |
| genetics | the scientific study of heredity |
| fertilization | the joining of the sperm and egg |
| purebred | the offspring of many generations that have the same traits |
| gene | the set of information that controls a trait; a segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait |
| alleless | the different forms of a gene, for example A or a |
| dominant allele | an allele whose trait always shows up in the organism when the allele is present; it is capitalized |
| recessive allele | an allele that is masked when a dominant allele is present, it is lowercase |
| hybrid | an organism that has 2 different alleles for a trait; an organism that is heterozygous for a particular trait |
| probability | a number that describes how likely it is that an event will occur |
| Punnett Square | a chart that shows all the possible combinations of alleles that can result from a genetic cross |
| phenotype | an organisms physical appearance or visible traits |
| genotype | an organisms gene make-up or allele combinations |
| homozygous | having 2 identical alleles for a trait |
| heterozygous | having 2 different alleles for a trait |
| meiosis | the process that occurs in the formation of sex cells (sperm & egg); the number of chromosomes is reduced by half |
