What is the Difference Between Dominant and Recessive?
🆚 Go to Comparative Table 🆚The difference between dominant and recessive traits lies in how they are expressed in an organism. Here are the key differences:
- Dominant traits are always expressed when the connected allele is dominant, even if only one copy of the dominant trait exists. For example, the allele for brown eyes is dominant, so you only need one copy of the 'brown eye' allele to have brown eyes.
- Recessive traits are expressed only if both the connected alleles are recessive. If one of the alleles is dominant, then the associated characteristic is less likely to manifest. For example, the allele for blue eyes is recessive, so to have blue eyes, you need to have two copies of the 'blue eye' allele.
Dominant and recessive alleles are determined by their associated traits, and their inheritance patterns can be used to predict the likelihood of certain traits being passed on from parent to offspring. In some cases, both alleles in a gene pair carry equal weight and produce a combined physical trait, a phenomenon known as co-dominance.
Comparative Table: Dominant vs Recessive
The difference between dominant and recessive traits lies in how they are expressed in an individual's phenotype. Here is a table summarizing the key differences between dominant and recessive traits:
| Dominant Traits | Recessive Traits |
|---|---|
| Always expressed when the connected allele is dominant, even if only one copy of the dominant trait exists | Expressed only if both the connected alleles are recessive. If one of the alleles is dominant, then the associated characteristic is less likely to manifest |
| Denoted by a capital letter | Denoted by a small letter |
| Produces a dominant phenotype in individuals who have one copy of the allele, which can come from just one parent | Produces a recessive phenotype only when the individual has two copies of the allele, one from each parent |
For example, if a dominant allele for brown eyes (B) and a recessive allele for blue eyes (b) are present in an individual, the brown eye color will be expressed because the dominant allele overrides the recessive one. To have blue eyes, an individual would need to inherit two recessive alleles for blue eyes (b).
- Dominant vs Recessive Alleles
- X Linked Dominant vs X Linked Recessive
- Dominant vs Recessive Epistasis
- Autosomal Dominant vs Autosomal Recessive Disorders
- Dominance vs Codominance
- Codominance vs Incomplete Dominance
- Dominance vs Epistasis
- Codominance vs Multiple Alleles
- Haploinsufficiency vs Dominant Negative
- Homozygous vs Heterozygous
- Autosomal Dominant vs Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease
- Homozygous vs Hemizygous
- Mendelian vs Non Mendelian Inheritance
- Heterozygous vs Homozygous Individuals
- Genotype vs Phenotype
- Genetics vs Heredity
- Allele vs Trait
- Gene vs Trait
- Penetrance vs Expressivity