heterozygous definition - Health Topics
HETEROZYGOUS definition: relating to or being a heterozygote, an organism that possesses a pair of differing alleles, one dominant and one recessive, of a particular gene. See examples of heterozygous used in a sentence. Heterozygous, as related to genetics, refers to having inherited different versions (alleles) of a genomic marker from each biological parent.
Understanding the Context
Thus, an individual who is heterozygous for a genomic marker has two different versions of that marker. The meaning of HETEROZYGOUS is having the two alleles at corresponding loci on homologous chromosomes different for one or more loci. How to use heterozygous in a sentence. When you’re heterozygous for a specific gene, it means you have two different versions of that gene.
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Here's what that means. Heterozygous is a term used in genetics to describe when two variations of a gene, known as alleles, are paired at the same location (locus) on a chromosome. By contrast, homozygous is when there are two copies of the same allele at the same locus. If both parents are heterozygous for a trait, each has a 50% chance of passing on either their dominant or recessive allele to offspring. This allows offspring to be homozygous dominant, homozygous recessive, or heterozygous, with specific probabilities.
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HETEROZYGOUS meaning: 1. having two different forms of a gene (= part of a cell containing DNA information) that controls…. Learn more. Understanding how traits are inherited requires familiarizing oneself with a few fundamental biological terms. The concept of “heterozygous” is central to this understanding, as it describes a specific genetic condition that governs how many of our personal traits are determined.