Dominant Lethal Alleles The dominant lethal inheritance pattern is one in which an allele is lethal both in the homozygote and the heterozygote; this allele can only be transmitted if the lethality phenotype occurs after reproductive age.

Autosomal dominant genetic disorders, such as Huntington’s disease, are caused by dominant alleles of a single gene on an autosome.

Tay-Sachs disease (TSD) is a fatal genetic disorder, most commonly occurring in children, that results in progressive destruction of the nervous system.

Alleles like A Y A^Y AYA, start superscript, Y, end superscript, which are lethal when they’re homozygous but not when they’re heterozygous, are called recessive lethal alleles.

Examples of human diseases caused by recessive lethal alleles include cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anemia, and achondroplasia. While the inheritance of one achondroplasia allele can cause the disease, the inheritance of two recessive lethal alleles is fatal.

In codominance, both alleles are completely expressed. If you crossed a red flower with a white one and the alleles were codominant, you might get flowers that are red and white in patches. If the alleles were incompletely dominant, the flowers would be pink because the traits blend.

Codominance occurs when two different versions – a.k.a. “alleles” – of the same gene are present in a living thing, and both alleles are expressed separately in different parts of an organism. Instead of one trait being dominant over the other, both traits appear.

Polygenic inheritance occurs when one characteristic is controlled by two or more genes. Often the genes are large in quantity but small in effect. Examples of human polygenic inheritance are height, skin color, eye color and weight.

Refers to a trait that is expressed only when genotype is homozygous; a trait that tends to be masked by other inherited traits, yet persists in a population among heterozygous genotypes.

If some traits are absent or not expressed, but found in the parent, then the allele is said to be recessive….

It is possible for recessive traits to be the most common (think blue eyes in Sweden) or dominant traits to be rare (think dimples everywhere). So one way a trait can go from recessive to dominant is with a new DNA difference that is dominant and causes the same trait.

​Recessive Recessive is a quality found in the relationship between two versions of a gene. Individuals receive one version of a gene, called an allele, from each parent. If the alleles are different, the dominant allele will be expressed, while the effect of the other allele, called recessive, is masked.

When a trait is recessive, an individual must have two copies of a recessive allele to express the trait. Recessive alleles are denoted by a lowercase letter (a versus A). One example of a recessive inherited trait is a smooth chin, as opposed to a dominant cleft chin.

A recessive trait can only be passed to the offspring if both parents carry (Dd or dd) and transmit the recessive allele to their offspring.

You generally stop growing taller after you go through puberty. This means that as an adult, you are unlikely to increase your height. However, there are certain things that you can do throughout adolescence to ensure that you’re maximizing your potential for growth.