heterosügootsuse

Heterosügootsus, also known as heterozygosity, is a fundamental concept in genetics. It describes the state of a diploid organism where a particular gene has two different alleles. Alleles are alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosome. For example, if a gene for eye color has an allele for brown eyes and another for blue eyes, an individual with one allele for brown and one for blue is heterozygous for that gene.

This contrasts with homozygosity, where an individual has two identical alleles for a particular gene. In the eye color example, someone with two brown eye alleles would be homozygous for brown eyes, and someone with two blue eye alleles would be homozygous for blue eyes.

The presence of heterozygosity can influence the observable traits of an organism, known as its phenotype. Whether a heterozygous individual expresses one allele over the other (dominance) or exhibits a blend of both traits (codominance) depends on the specific genetic interaction. Heterozygosity is crucial for genetic variation within a population and plays a significant role in evolutionary processes. It can also be important in understanding inheritance patterns and predicting the likelihood of certain genetic conditions.