21-03-2004, 01:37 AM
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Registered User
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2004
Posts: 3
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Alleles
Quote:
Originally posted by Iris Cohen
[b] Two genes might be alleles, or they might not be alleles.
"Gene' is a catagory, of which alleles are members.
An allele is itself a type of chromosome sequence - two identical sequences may be of the same allele.
For example, there may be two alleles for the alcohol dehygrogenase gene.
We diploid organisms will have two alleles for each gene, one from Mom, and one from Dad.
Regarding the alcohol dehydrogenase gene, we might have two identical chromosome sequences of one of the two alleles, or one of each type. So with a fast-metabolising allele and a slow-metabolising allele for alcohol dehydrogenase existing, we might have 1)two fast-metabolizing, 2)two slow-metabolizing or 3)one fast- and one slow-metabolizing allele.
Brian Cady
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