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What term do we use to refer to genetic traits that are governed by more than one set of genes

Author

James Bradley

Updated on April 11, 2026

What term do we use to refer to genetic traits that are governed by more than one set of genes? Polygenetic Inheritance.

What term do you use to refer to genetic traits that are governed by more than one set of genes?

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. Polygenes exist in other organisms, as well.

What is it called when several genes influence a trait?

A polygenic trait is one whose phenotype is influenced by more than one gene. Traits that display a continuous distribution, such as height or skin color, are polygenic.

What traits are controlled by multiple genes?

A trait that is controlled by more than one gene is called polygenic which translates to “multiple genes”. The genes work together to make one trait. Examples are skin, eye and hair color.

What is the genotype of a plant that produces green peas yellow peas are dominant?

8.2 The factor for producing yellow peas (“Y”) is dominant over the factor for producing green peas (“y”). Suppose a pea plant produces yellow peas. What possible combination(s) of factors can it have? Either “YY” or “Yy”.

What do you call the trait that is always present and causes the other traits to disappear?

Dominant traits are those that are inherited unchanged in a hybridization. Recessive traits become latent, or disappear in the offspring of a hybridization. The recessive trait does, however, reappear in the progeny of the hybrid offspring. An example of a dominant trait is the violet-colored flower trait.

What is the meaning of genotypes?

In a broad sense, the term “genotype” refers to the genetic makeup of an organism; in other words, it describes an organism’s complete set of genes. … Humans are diploid organisms, which means that they have two alleles at each genetic position, or locus, with one allele inherited from each parent.

What is it called when one gene affects multiple characteristics?

Pleiotropy (from Greek πλείων pleion, ‘more’, and τρόπος tropos, ‘way’) occurs when one gene influences two or more seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits. Such a gene that exhibits multiple phenotypic expression is called a pleiotropic gene.

What do you call a gene that is controlled by more than two alleles?

Traits controlled by a single gene with more than two alleles are called multiple allele traits. An example is ABO blood type. Your blood type refers to which of certain proteins called antigens are found on your red blood cells. … The IA and IB alleles are dominant to the i allele.

What do you call a trait with multiple alleles?

Traits controlled by more than two alleles have multiple alleles. Many genes have multiple phenotypic effects, a property called pleiotropy. Epistasis is when a gene at one location (locus) alters the phenotypic expression of a gene at another locus.

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When several genes influence a trait the trait is said to be quizlet?

Traits controlled by two or more genes are said to be polygenic traits, which means “having many genes.” For example, at least three genes are involved in making the reddish-brown pigment in the eyes of fruit flies.

What is a version of a gene called?

“Allele” is the word that we use to describe the alternative form or versions of a gene. People inherit one allele for each autosomal gene from each parent, and we tend to lump the alleles into categories. Typically, we call them either normal or wild-type alleles, or abnormal, or mutant alleles.

What is meant by the term homologous chromosomes?

two chromosomes, one of paternal origin, the other of maternal origin, that are identical in appearance and pair during meiosis.

What are the heterozygous genotypes?

(HEH-teh-roh-ZY-gus JEE-noh-tipe) The presence of two different alleles at a particular gene locus. A heterozygous genotype may include one normal allele and one mutated allele or two different mutated alleles (compound heterozygote).

What are the differences between genotypes and phenotypes?

The genotype is a set of genes in the DNA which are responsible for the unique trait or characteristics. Whereas the phenotype is the physical appearance or characteristic of the organism. Thus, we can find the human genetic code with the help of their genotype.

Is PP genotype or phenotype?

There are three available genotypes, PP (homozygous dominant ), Pp (heterozygous), and pp (homozygous recessive). All three have different genotypes but the first two have the same phenotype (purple) as distinct from the third (white).

What is the term homozygous?

(HOH-moh-ZY-gus JEE-noh-tipe) The presence of two identical alleles at a particular gene locus. A homozygous genotype may include two normal alleles or two alleles that have the same variant.

What is genotype AS and AA?

If the dominant allele is labeled as “A” and the recessive allele, “a”, three different genotypes are possible: “AA”, “aa”, and “Aa”. The term “homozygous” is used to describe the pairs “AA” and “aa” because the alleles in the pair are the same, i.e. both dominant or both recessive.

What do we mean by the terms genotype and phenotype give two examples of each?

For example, two mice that look virtually identical could have different genotypes. But if they have visibly different traits – say, one has white fur and the other has black fur – then they have different phenotypes.

What do you call the passing of traits from parents to offspring?

The transmission of characteristics from parents to offspring is called heredity, and the characteristics that are inherited can be predicted. Reginald Punnett contributed much to the science of genetics when he designed a method of predicting traits as he was studying poultry genetics.

What does notation TT mean to geneticists?

An organism can be either homozygous dominant (TT) or homozygous recessive (tt). If an organism has two different alleles (Tt) for a certain gene, it is known as heterozygous (hetero means different).

What is it called when a trait disappears?

Recessive allele. trait is covered up, or dominated, by another form of that trait and seems to disappear; represented by lower case letters. Genotype. the genetic make-up of an organism. Homozygous.

What is co dominant?

= Codominance is a 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 usually will be expressed, while the effect of the other allele, called recessive, is masked.

What do you call an individual that is a heterozygous at two genes?

heterozygous. a genotype consisting of two different alleles of a gene for a particular trait (Aa). Individuals who are heterozygous for a trait are referred to as heterozygotes.

When a single gene has multiple downstream effects it is called?

Pleiotropy is the property of a single gene or protein to act in a multiplicity of ways.

What is meant by the term pleiotropy?

: the phenomenon of a single gene influencing two or more distinct phenotypic traits : the quality or state of being pleiotropic In genetics, there’s a concept called pleiotropy, which posits that a single gene can influence multiple traits. [

What pleiotropic means?

Definition of pleiotropic : producing more than one effect especially : having multiple phenotypic expressions a pleiotropic gene.

What does multiple allele mean?

Definition of multiple allele : an allele of a genetic locus having more than two allelic forms within a population.

What is the physical expression of a trait?

The physical expression of a trait in an individual is called its phenotype. A phenotype is usually produced through the interaction of the alleles of several genes with each other and with the environment.

What is the section of a chromosome that codes for a trait?

A gene is a small section of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a particular sequence of amino acids, to make a specific protein. It is the unit of heredity, and may be copied and passed on to the next generation.

What are the offspring of true breeding parents called?

The true-breeding parent plants are referred to as the P generation (parental generation). The hybrid offspring of the P generation are called the F1 generation (first filial generation).