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Article: Inheritance Patterns
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- Genetics
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Inheritance Patterns
Inheritance patterns are the predictable patterns seen in the transmission of genes from one generation to the next, and their expression in the organism that possesses them. (A gene is said to be expressed when it is read by cellular mechanisms that result in the production of a protein.) While people have long noted that offspring resemble parents, the formal description of inheritance patterns began with Gregor Mendel, whose discoveries laid the foundation for the modern understanding of genetic inheritance.
Phenotype and Genotype
An organism's observable characteristics, such as height, hair texture, skin color, or ear shape, are known as the
phenotype
of that ...