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  • Word comparison: incomplete dominance vs. codominance

incomplete dominance vs. codominance

incomplete dominance vs. codominance: 's the difference?

Incomplete dominance and codominance are opposing ways of inheriting two genetic phenotypes. Incomplete dominance means a trait is intermediate between two phenotypes. Codominance means two phenotypes are both fully expressed. As an extremely simplified example, imagine a flower whose “parents” are blue and red. If the offspring has purple petals, that’s incomplete dominance. If it has a mix of blue and red petals, that’s codominance.

incomplete dominance

noun

  1. the appearance in a heterozygote of a trait that is intermediate between either of the trait's homozygous phenotypes.

codominance

noun

  1. Ecology. the state of being one of two or more species that are equally dominant in a biotic community:

    Subalpine fir attains climax dominance or codominance in forests throughout the mountains of western North America.

  2. Genetics. the state of being one of two different alleles that are fully expressed in a heterozygous individual:

    The AB blood group in humans, in which both the A and B alleles are equally expressed, is a classic example of codominance.