What is heredity?

Heredity is the passing down or getting genes from parents to child. Inheritance means receiving/getting from your parents.

What is a Trait?

A trait is a characteristic or quality of a person. Each of us has different combinations of traits that makes us unique. Traits are determined by genes and these genes are passed down from generation to generations.

Alleles

Alleles are represented by a letter. For each gene you receive an allele from your mom and another allele from your dad. Together, your two alleles determine your traits.

Chromosomes vs Genes

A chromosome is a package that carries genetic information called genes. A gene is a small piece of DNA that codes for a specific trait.

Dominant vs Recessive

Dominant Allele is the allele that is strong and is expressed. It will mask (hide) the weak allele in an organism with mixed alleles ex: Hh. The dominant allele is represented by a Capital Letter (uppercase letter) - ex: H.

Recessive Allele - The weak allele that can only be seen (expressed) when an organism’s both alleles are recessive ex: hh. The weak allele gets hidden (masked) by the dominant allele. The recessive allele is represented by a small letter (lowercase letter) - ex: h.

Homozygous - This is when the alleles are the same letter. Either same big (uppercase) letters (BB) or same (lowercase) small letters (bb).

Heterozygous - This is when the alleles are different letters. One BIG (uppercase) letter B and one small (lowercase) letter b, (Bb).

Genotype

A Genotype is the genetic combination of your alleles. Remember you get your alleles from your parents. There are two alleles for each gene. Genotype is written using two letters.

There are only 3 options of Genotypes: GG, gg, Gg

Phenotype

A Phenotype refers to an individual's observable traits such as color, texture, and height (physical traits). A phenotype is the expression of the genotype and is visible to other people.

'What you can See'

Just remember Phenotype = Physical