recessiveness
21conservation — conservational, adj. /kon seuhr vay sheuhn/, n. 1. the act of conserving; prevention of injury, decay, waste, or loss; preservation: conservation of wildlife; conservation of human rights. 2. official supervision of rivers, forests, and other… …
22Hardy-Weinberg law — /hahr dee wuyn berrg/, Genetics. a principle stating that in an infinitely large, randomly mating population in which selection, migration, and mutation do not occur, the frequencies of alleles and genotypes do not change from generation to… …
23inbreeding — /in bree ding/, n. Biol. the mating of closely related individuals, as cousins, sire daughter, brother sister, or self fertilized plants, which tends to increase the number of individuals that are homozygous for a trait and therefore increases… …
24recessive — recessively, adv. recessiveness, n. /ri ses iv/, adj. 1. tending to go, move, or slant back; receding. 2. Genetics. of or pertaining to a recessive. 3. Phonet. (of an accent) showing a tendency to recede from the end toward the beginning of a… …
25sex chromosome — Genetics. a chromosome, differing in shape or function from other chromosomes, that determines the sex of an individual. [1910 15] * * * Either of a pair of chromosomes that determine whether an individual is male or female. The sex chromosomes… …
26Wilson disease — or hepatolenticular degeneration Recessive hereditary defect (see recessiveness) that impairs one s ability to metabolize copper. In affected persons, copper accumulates in the basal ganglia (see ganglion) of the brain (involved in control of… …
27colour blindness — Inability to distinguish one or more colours. The human retina contains three types of cone cells that absorb light in different parts of the spectrum. Absence of these types causes colour blindness to red, green, and blue. Colour blindness is a… …
28cystic fibrosis (CF) — or mucoviscidosis Inherited metabolic disorder characterized by production of thick, sticky mucus. It is recessive (see recessiveness) and the most common inherited disorder (about 1 per 2,000 live births) in those of European ancestry.… …
29homozygote and heterozygote — Two genetic possibilities for a fertilized egg. If the two sex cells (gametes) that fuse during fertilization carry the same form of a gene for a specific trait, the organism is said to be a homozygote for that trait. If the gametes carry… …
30phenylketonuria (PKU) — or phenylpyruvic oligophrenia Inability to normally metabolize phenylalanine, the accumulation of which interferes with normal childhood development. Central nervous system effects include mental retardation and seizures (see epilepsy), with… …
