genetic science - the branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organismstransformation - (genetics) modification of a cell or bacterium by the uptake and incorporation of exogenous DNA carrier - (genetics) an organism that possesses a recessive gene whose effect is masked by a dominant allele; the associated trait is not apparent but can be passed on to offspring amphidiploid - (genetics) an organism or cell having a diploid set of chromosomes from each parent diploid - (genetics) an organism or cell having the normal amount of DNA per cell; i.e., two sets of chromosomes or twice the haploid number haploid - (genetics) an organism or cell having only one complete set of chromosomes heteroploid - (genetics) an organism or cell having a chromosome number that is not an even multiple of the haploid chromosome number for that species polyploid - (genetics) an organism or cell having more than twice the haploid number of chromosomes crossbreed, hybrid, cross - (genetics) an organism that is the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock; especially offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties or breeds or species; "a mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey" vector - (genetics) a virus or other agent that is used to deliver DNA to a cell cosmid - (genetics) a large vector that is made from a bacteriophage and used to clone genes or gene fragments character - (genetics) an attribute (structural or functional) that is determined by a gene or group of genes unit character - (genetics) a character inherited on an all-or-none basis and dependent on the presence of a single gene heterosis, hybrid vigor - (genetics) the tendency of a crossbred organism to have qualities superior to those of either parent gene linkage, linkage - (genetics) traits that tend to be inherited together as a consequence of an association between their genes; all of the genes of a given chromosome are linked (where one goes they all go) fertilized ovum, zygote - (genetics) the diploid cell resulting from the union of a haploid spermatozoon and ovum (including the organism that develops from that cell) heterozygote - (genetics) an organism having two different alleles of a particular gene and so giving rise to varying offspring homozygote - (genetics) an organism having two identical alleles of a particular gene and so breeding true for the particular characteristic cistron, gene, factor - (genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors" allele, allelomorph - (genetics) either of a pair (or series) of alternative forms of a gene that can occupy the same locus on a particular chromosome and that control the same character; "some alleles are dominant over others" haplotype - (genetics) a combination of alleles (for different genes) that are located closely together on the same chromosome and that tend to be inherited together XX - (genetics) normal complement of sex chromosomes in a female XXX - (genetics) abnormal complement of three X chromosomes in a female XXY - (genetics) abnormal complement of sex hormones in a male resulting in Klinefelter's syndrome XY - (genetics) normal complement of sex hormones in a male XYY - (genetics) abnormal complement of sex hormones in a male who has two Y chromosomes sex chromosome - (genetics) a chromosome that determines the sex of an individual; "mammals normally have two sex chromosomes" Mendel's law - (genetics) one of two principles of heredity formulated by Gregor Mendel on the basis of his experiments with plants; the principles were limited and modified by subsequent genetic research cytogenetics - the branch of biology that studies the cellular aspects of heredity (especially the chromosomes) genomics - the branch of genetics that studies organisms in terms of their genomes (their full DNA sequences) proteomics - the branch of genetics that studies the full set of proteins encoded by a genome |