Answer #1

The terms recessive and dominant are encountered within the subject of biology, especially physical traits during the topic of genetics. In general, a person gets two different copies of a certain gene for each physical trait. This means one copy comes from the male parent, while the other comes from the female parent. The genes can either be recessive or dominant as explained below.

A good example is considering the eye color. If one of your parents has light blue eyes, while the other has dark brown eyes, then you cannot have both blue and brown eyes. There has to be one gene that is dominant, whereas the other is recessive. This means if you currently have dark brown eyes, then that is basically a dominant characteristic.

Dominant genes are normally represented using capital letters, whereas recessive genes can be represented using small letters. Hence, there are three kinds of a gene and they include AA, Aa or aa. In AA, you get the dark brown eyes from the two parents. This means it is guaranteed that you are going to have dark brown eyes. Nevertheless, if you get the aa combination, you will finally have blue colored eyes since you have got the recessive characteristic from your parents.

You can also consider hair type to better understand the differences between these terms. You can either have straight or curly hair. If you get two similar curly hair copies, then you will acquire curly hair. The same applies with two straight hair copies. However, in a situation that involves copies of both straight and curly hair, then the product gets a blend of both, which is wavy.

When a gene can be seen, it is referred to as dominant. However, recessive genes may be described as those that disappear completely or do not appear as regularly. Recessive genes disappear after several generations, whereas dominant genes can be passed on down to the future generations.

Answered By: daniel [554 ]