Not Just Dominance & Recessiveness

One of the foundations of genetics is that some traits are dominant and some are recessive.  It’s a great way to start the discussion, but it’s not the whole story.  The most basic genetic options are dominant and recessive, but there is also co-dominance, incomplete dominance, and polygenic traits (plus more variations!) that account for [...]

Probability & Genetics

When introducing Mendelian genetics, I showed that the Mendel found a cross of a purebred dominant and a purebred recessive pea plant resulted in all dominant offspring. By crossing two of those offspring, he received 3 dominant for every 1 recessive plant.  Random chance indicates that if you run that test a thousand times you’ll [...]

Mendel and His Peas – The Story of Genetics

Hi loyal readers, glad to be back after a long stretch.  I recently returned from a long vacation in the Mediterranean!  I visited places like Pompeii and the Colleseum in Rome, but more importantly, I made sure to eat plenty of gelato.  Before I left I was doing some consulting work so I’ve been involved [...]