Inherit

How it is used

Usually 'inherit something from someone': she inherited the allele from her mother. The noun is inheritance and the adjectives are inherited and heritable. The opposite idea is acquired traits, which develop during life and are not passed on through genes.

Example sentences

1. Each child inherits half of its chromosomes from the mother and half from the father.

2. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only through the mother's line.

Common collocations

• inherit a trait
• inherit from
• inherited disease
• pattern of inheritance
• inherited mutation

Related terms

• traitA characteristic of an organism, such as eye color, flower shape or blood type. Some traits are inherited through genes, while others are shaped by the environment.
• geneA section of DNA that carries the instructions for making a particular protein or functional RNA. Genes are the basic units of heredity passed from parents to offspring.
• alleleOne of the different versions of the same gene. For example, a gene for flower color may have one allele for purple flowers and another for white.
• offspringThe young produced by an animal or plant; its children. The same word is used for one young or for many.
• dominantDescribing an allele whose effect shows in the organism even when only one copy is present. It hides the effect of a recessive allele.

More terms: Genetics and Heredity

• DNA
• chromosome
• mutation
• meiosis
• genotype
• phenotype
• recessive
• RNA
• nucleotide
• gene expression
• transcription
• translation