Homozygous
two identical alleles
‘Homozygous’ refers to the condition where an individual possesses two copies of the same allele of a particular gene. This means that both the copies of the gene in an organism are exactly the same. When an organism is homozygous for a gene, it means that it has inherited the same alleles for that gene from both of its parents.
For example, if a human has two copies of the blue-eye allele, then the person is said to be homozygous for blue eye color. Similarly, if a plant has two identical copies of a gene that codes for the red flower color, then it is homozygous for the red flower pigmentation gene.
Homozygous individuals are also either dominant or recessive in terms of their allele for a particular gene. When an organism is homozygous for a dominant allele, it means that the expression of that allele will be dominant over any other alleles in the organism’s genome. Alternatively, when an organism is homozygous for a recessive allele, it means that the expression of that recessive allele will only be expressed if both copies of the gene are recessive.
Understanding homozygous is important in genetics as it helps in predicting the possible inheritance pattern of a trait in offspring from parents.
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