GENETICS VOCABULARY

TRAITS

• a phenotypic characteristic of an organism that may be inherited

HEREDITY

• passing on of characteristics from parents to offspring

SEXUAL REPRODUCTION

• reproduction which involves the fusion of male and female sex cells and produces genetic variation in offspring

ASEXUAL REPRODUCION

• offspring form from only one parent and it a clone of that parent

GENES

• the set of information that controls a trait; code in the DNA

CHROMSOMES

• Compact structure of tightly coiled DNA within the nucleus containing the genetic information that is passed from one generation of cells to the next

DNA

• deoxyribonucleic acid; hereditary material in humans

GENOTYPE

• combination of genes in an organism

PHENOTYPE

• outward appearance of an organism; regardless of genotype

ALLELE

• alternative forms of a gene for each variation of a trait of an organism