Meaning & use
Heterozygotes
Last updated
Organisms that have two different alleles for a particular gene, one inherited from each parent.
See it in a sentence
Heterozygotes for the sickle cell trait often show partial resistance to malaria.
The biology class bred heterozygotes to observe the resulting ratio of traits.
A note on using this word
Heterozygotes carry one dominant and one recessive allele, so their observable trait usually reflects only the dominant gene, following Mendel's laws of inheritance.
Words with an opposite meaning
homozygotes
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