VOCAB WORDS

• Trait- a distinguishing characteristic or quality, especially of one's personal nature.
• Dominant trait- An inherited character determined by a dominant gene.
• Chromosome- any of several threadlike bodies, consisting of chromatin, that carry the genes in a linear order
• Heredity- the transmission of genetic characters from parents to offspring
• Gene- the basic physical unit of heredity
• Recessive trait- a trait that must be contributed by both parents in order to appear in the offspring
• Allele- any of several forms of a gene, usually arising through mutation, that are responsible for hereditary variation
• Punnett square- a type of grid used to show the gametes of each parent and their possible offspring
• Phenotype- the observable constitution of an organism
• Genotype- the genetic makeup of an organism or group of organisms with reference to a single trait, set of traits, or an entire complex of traits
• Homozygous- having identical pairs of genes for any given pair of hereditary characteristics
• Heterozygous- a hybrid containing genes for two unlike forms of a characteristic, and therefore not breeding true to type
• DNA- the set of nongenetic traits, qualities, or features that characterize a person or thing
• Prokaryotes- any cellular organism that has no nuclear membrane, no organelles in the cytoplasm except ribosomes
• eukaryote-any organism having as its fundamental structural unit a cell type that contains specialized organelles in the cytoplasm