Mendelian Genetics Fundamentals
Ever wondered why you have your mom's eyes but your dad's smile? It all comes down to alleles, which are different forms of the same gene. When we talk about traits, we're referring to two things: your phenotype (the physical trait you can see, like hitchhiker's thumb) and your genotype (your actual genetic makeup).
Genes can be dominant or recessive. A dominant allele will always show up in your appearance if present, while recessive traits only appear when there's no dominant allele to overshadow them. Your genes can be homozygous (two identical alleles, like AA or aa) or heterozygous (two different alleles, like Aa).
Cell division plays a crucial role in genetics. Mitosis creates identical daughter cells with complete genetic material (diploid), while meiosis creates four cells with half the genetic material (haploid) - this is how sperm and egg cells are made. Remember that your DNA makes up chromosomes, which contain genes that determine your traits.
💡 Think of dominant and recessive alleles like this: if dominance is a loud voice and recessive is a whisper, you'll only hear the whisper when there's no loud voice present!
