| A | B |
|---|
| Gregor Mendel | The man credited with the documentation of the basic principles of heredity. |
| Character | A heritable feature that varies among individuals. |
| Trait | The variant for a character. |
| True-Breeding | Creates offsprings of the same variety through self-pollination. |
| Hybridization | The mating (crossing) of two true-breeding varieties. |
| P generation | The true-breeding parents. |
| F1 generation | The hybrid offspring of true-breeding parents. |
| F2 generation | The offspring of self-pollinating F1 generation. |
| Allele | Alternative versions of a gene. |
| Dominant Allele | The fully-expressed allele in an organism's appearance. |
| Recessive Allele | The allele that has no noticeable effect on the organism's appearance. |
| Mendel's Law of Segregation | If different alleles are present, then 50% of the gametes recieve the dominant allele and 50% of the gametes recieve the recessive allele. |
| Punnett Square | Device for predicting the results of a genetic cross between individuals of known genotype. |
| Homozygous | An organism having a pair of identical alleles for a character. |
| Heterozygous | Organisms having two different alleles for a gene. |
| Phenotype | An organism's traits. |
| Genotype | An organism's genetic makeup. |
| Testcross | The breeding of a recessive homozygote with an organism of dominant phenotype but unknown genotype. |
| Monohybrids | Breeding following only one characteristic. |
| Dihybrids | Breeding following multiple characteristics. |
| Law of Independent Assortment | The independent segregation of each pair of alleles during gamete formation. |
| Incomplete Dominance | Where F1 hybrids have an appearance somewhere in between two phenotypes. |
| Complete Dominance | Where phenotypes of the heterozygote and dominant homozygote are indistinguishable. |
| Codominance | Two alleles affect the phenotype in separate, distinguishable ways. |
| Pleiotropy | The ability of a gene to affect an organism in many ways. |
| Epistasis | A gene at one locus alters the phenotype expression of a gene at a second locus. |
| Polygenic Inheritance | The effect of two or more genes on a single phenotypic character. |
| Norm of Reaction | The phenotypic range for a genotype. |
| Multifactorial | Many factors influence phenotype. |
| Pedigree | As much information as possible collected about a family's history for a particular trait. |
| Cystic Fibrosis | Chloride channels are defective or absent in the plasma membranes. |
| Tay-Sachs Disease | Dysfunctional enzyme failing to break down brain lipids of a certain class. |
| Sickle-Cell Disease | A different amino acid in the hemoglobin protein of red blood cells causes a "sickle" shape. |
| Huntington's Disease | A degenerative disease of the nervous system. |
| Aminocentesis | Insert a needle into the uterus and extract about 10 mL of amniotic fluid. |
| Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) | Insert a narrow tube through the cervix into the uterus and suction a tuny sample of fetal tissue. |
