Genetics Chapter 12 Flashcards

Pedigrees are charts used to track the inheritance of traits within families across generations.
Simple recessive heredity is characterized by conditions like phenylketonuria (PKU) and Tay-Sachs disease.
In simple dominant heredity, inheriting just one dominant allele from a parent is sufficient for the trait to manifest in the offspring.

Gene expression can be affected by external factors like temperature, nutrition, light, chemicals, and infectious agents.

A carrier possesses a gene that is not visible in the phenotype but can be passed to offspring.
A fetus refers to the developing human from 9 weeks post-conception until birth.
Autosomes are chromosomes that are not involved in determining an individual’s sex.
Codominant alleles will both influence the phenotype in a heterozygous individual.
Incomplete dominance occurs when one allele does not entirely mask the effects of another.
Multiple alleles provide genetic diversity, as a single trait can have three or more variations.
Polygenic inheritance leads to a range of phenotypes due to the interaction of multiple genes.

Sex chromosomes are responsible for determining an individual's sex (XX for females and XY for males).
Sex-linked traits are associated specifically with genes located on sex chromosomes, affecting trait expression based on the sex of the individual.
A karyotype is a visual representation of an organism's chromosome sets, arranged by size and shape, useful for identifying chromosomal abnormalities.