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What is a Recessive Trait?

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

A recessive trait is a trait caused by a recessive gene, which means that someone must inherit two copies of the gene for the trait to manifest. By contrast, a dominant trait only requires one copy of the gene. The concept of dominant and recessive traits in genetics was put forward by Gregor Mendel, a 19th century scientist who is often regarded as the father of genetics, thanks to his extensive work in the field.

When organisms such as humans reproduce, they produce young with a genetic inheritance from both parents, caused by the fusing of haploid sperm with haploid eggs to create a diploid organism. In the case of humans, genetic material is encoded in 46 chromosomes, with 23 coming from each parent. Each chromosome contains a series of alleles or genes which code various information, from the color of the child's eyes to the way in which the feet develop.

Gregor Mendell performed much of his gene research on peas.
Gregor Mendell performed much of his gene research on peas.

When the alleles from both parents are the same, someone is said to be homozygous at that allele. If a child inherits two different alleles, such as a gene for red hair and a gene for brown hair, he or she is said to be heterozygous at that allele. When someone inherits the same allele twice, that trait will manifest whether or not it is dominant. When someone is heterozygous, however, one of the alleles will remain inactive, and this allele represents a recessive trait.

Red hair is a recessive trait.
Red hair is a recessive trait.

Gregor Mendel did much of his work with peas. In the course of his research, he learned that purple was a dominant trait for flower color, meaning that a flower only had to inherit one purple gene to produce purple flowers. White, on the other hand, was a recessive trait, so only peas which were homozygous with white at the allele concerning flower color would develop white flowers. For shorthand, he adopted the convention of using capital letters to denote a dominant trait, and lower case versions to indicate a recessive, in this case P and p to denote flower color.

Blonde hair color is recessive, but it can be passed on in the absence of a dominant trait.
Blonde hair color is recessive, but it can be passed on in the absence of a dominant trait.

The presence of recessives explains why two dark haired parents can have a light haired child, because the gene for light hair is a recessive trait, and therefore would not manifest in parents who had a gene for dark hair. If both parents of a child carry the dominant and recessive genes, there is a 25% chance that the child will develop light hair, a 50% chance that the child will have dark hair while carrying the allele for light hair, and a 25% chance that the child will be homozygous for dark hair.

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a TheHealthBoard researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a TheHealthBoard researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

aaaCookie

@sapphire12, Punnet squares are good visuals for learning basic genetics, although when you get to the things with multiple recessive genes, traits are much more complicated to solve in a punnet square. For me, this is one of the reasons why I did not pursue more complex biology.

sapphire12

One of the first things you do in beginning biology is study basic genetics and punnet squares, with the intention of understanding basic recessive and dominant traits. Punnet squares are matrices of sorts with the letters for alleles, like P and p is Mendel's examples, on the sides. You then fill in the boxesof the matrix to determine the percentages of a PP, Pp, or pp result. Generally you begin with Gregor Mendel's own first experiment to get the concept. The nice thing about Mendel's work is that he gave us a good visual system for understanding dominant and recessive traits.

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    • Gregor Mendell performed much of his gene research on peas.
      By: Giuseppe Porzani
      Gregor Mendell performed much of his gene research on peas.
    • Red hair is a recessive trait.
      By: gromovataya
      Red hair is a recessive trait.
    • Blonde hair color is recessive, but it can be passed on in the absence of a dominant trait.
      By: Syda Productions
      Blonde hair color is recessive, but it can be passed on in the absence of a dominant trait.
    • The gene responsible for blue eyes is recessive.
      By: Valerie Potapova
      The gene responsible for blue eyes is recessive.
    • Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, first proposed the concept of dominant and recessive traits.
      Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, first proposed the concept of dominant and recessive traits.