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Your friend has blue eyes.

That is an expression of what?


conditioned response

dominant trait

damaged genes

recessive alleles

User Drew C
by
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1 Answer

14 votes

Final answer:

Blue eyes in an individual are an expression of recessive alleles. A person must inherit two recessive alleles, one from each parent, for blue eyes to be expressed. The blue eye allele is recessive compared to the dominant brown eye allele.

Step-by-step explanation:

Your friend's blue eyes are an expression of recessive alleles. In genetics, eye color is determined by multiple genes, where the blue eye allele is recessive compared to the dominant brown eye allele. A person must inherit two copies of the recessive blue allele, one from each parent, in order for the blue color to be expressed in their eyes.

An example of dominance in eye color is how a single functional copy of the 'brown' allele can produce enough melanin in the iris for the eyes to appear brown, even if the other allele is the non-melanin-producing 'blue' allele. In contrast, for someone to have blue eyes, they need two copies of the blue allele, as blue is a recessive trait.

It's important to note that, in general, a dominance relationship is seen when the recessive allele is less functional or defective, which is what happens in the case of blue and brown eye color alleles.

User Kevin Schroeder
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