Polyploid organisms have more than two copies of each chromosome, and follow similar rules of dominance, but for simplicity will not be discussed here. The dominant/recessive relationship is made possible by the fact that most higher organisms are diploid: that is, most of their cells have two copies of each chromosome - one copy from each parent. 3.5 Some genetic diseases inherited as autosomal dominant traits.3.4 Some genetic diseases carried by dominant and recessive alleles.3.3 Human traits governed by simple dominance.2 Relationship to other genetics concepts.Traits inherited in a dominant-recessive pattern are often said to "follow Mendelian inheritance". There are three kinds of dominance relationships: The exact color it has reflects the dominance relationship. However, the heterozygote Pp could theoretically have many different colors: purple, white or pink. The flower color for PP (purple) and pp (white) do not depend on the dominance relationship. For example, flower color in sweet peas ( Lathyrus odoratus) is controlled by a single gene with two alleles.
In genetics, dominance relationship refers to how the alleles for a single locus interact to produce a phenotype. A heterozygous genotype is written Aa, not aA.įor other non-genetic uses of the term "dominance", see Dominance. This example demonstrates that one can only refer to dominance/recessiveness with respect to individual phenotypes.Ī dominant gene when written in a genotype is always written before the recessive gene in a heterozygous pair. There are several phenotypes associated with the sickle genotype: 1) anemia (a recessive trait), 2) blood cell sickling (partially dominant), 3) altered beta-globin electrophoretic mobility (codominant), and 4) resistance to malaria (dominant). The sickle cell genotype is caused by a single base pair change in the beta-globin gene. Consider sickle cell anemia as an example. If a genetic trait is dominant, a person only needs to inherit one copy of the gene for the trait to be expressed.ĭominance/recessiveness refers to phenotype, not genotype. Every person has two copies of every gene, one from mother and one from father. In genetics, the term dominant gene refers to the allele that causes a phenotype that is seen in a heterozygous genotype.