PCB 4674C Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Zygosity, Karyotype, Phenotype
Document Summary
Organisms typically have many chromosomes, and the total chromosomal make-up of an organism is called its karyotype. Some organisms are diploid, they possess two full sets of chromosomes (one from each parent), and therefore two copies of each gene at each locus. An allele is dominant if it produces its phenotype in either homozygous or heterozygous condition. An allele is recessive if it produces its phenotype only in the homozygous condition. The wild type allele is the most common allele (if there is one) in wild populations. This leads us to one last important distinction, that of genotype and phenotype: the genotype is the genetic makeup of the organism, while the. Phenotype represents the observable traits of the organism. Ok, genetics digression over, so to get back to the question we"re interested in, So, for example, there is a great deal of variation in height in human populations.
