Heredity Vocabulary Sexual Reproduction- a cell containing genetic info from the mother and a cell containing genetic info from the father combine into a completely new cell, which becomes the offspring Heredity- the passing of genes from parents to offspring Gene- unit of heredity that occupies a specific location on a chromosome and codes for a particular product Alleles- various forms of the same gene Phenotype- describes the physical characteristics that can be observed Genotype- the name for the genes an organism has Dominant- describes an allele that determines the phenotype of an individual organism when two different copies are present in the genotype; this allele wins out over the others Recessive- describes an allele that is not expressed when combined with a dominant form; this allele loses when a dominant allele is present Heterozygous- having different pairs of alleles for the same characteristic Homozygous- having identical pairs of alleles for the same characteristic