BB - both brown genes (this person will have brown eyes).Bb - one brown gene, one blue gene (this person will have brown eyes).
We use the capital letter "B" to represent the dominant brown-eyed gene and a lower case "b" to represent the recessive blue-eyed gene. Dominant genes are written with capital letters and recessive genes with lower case letters. In order to write out the specific allele a person has for a gene, you write a letter representing the gene from the mother and a letter for the gene from the father. The brown eyed gene is called the dominant gene and the blue eyed gene is the recessive gene. They will only have blue eyes if both genes are blue. If someone has a brown eyed gene and a blue eye gene, they will have brown eyes. For example, brown eyes are dominant over blue eyes. Some genes are more dominant than others. The specific pattern of the hair color gene that causes the hair to be black would be the allele.Įach child inherits two genes for each trait from their parents.
For example, the gene would determine the hair color.
Each gene tells the cell how to make a certain protein which may determine a trait such as the color of the eyes.Īllele - While the section of DNA is called a gene, a specific pattern in a gene is called an allele. Gene - Inside the DNA molecule are sections of information called genes. You can also go to our DNA page and our chromosome page to learn more.Ī few things you should know about genes and inheritance: We learned some of the basics about inheritance on the Mendel and Inheritance page. On this page we will learn how those patterns work. What genes your parents and grandparents have, affects what genes you have. Scientists have discovered that genes are inherited in certain patterns. Half of our DNA comes from our mother and half from our father. These traits are passed on by genes in our DNA. We all have heard how we get certain traits from our parents such as the color of our eyes or how tall we are.