Recessive - Nomenclature

Nomenclature

Technically, the term "recessive gene" is imprecise because it is not the gene that is recessive but the phenotype (or trait). It should also be noted that the concepts of recessiveness and dominance were developed before a molecular understanding of DNA and before molecular biology, thus mapping many newer concepts to "dominant" or "recessive" phenotypes is problematic. Many traits previously thought to be recessive have mild forms or biochemical abnormalities that arise from the presence of the one copy of the allele. This suggests that the dominant phenotype is dependent upon having two dominant genes and the presence of one dominant and one recessive gene creates some blending of both dominant and recessive traits.

Recessive genes are usually represented by a lowercase letter in a Punnett square, as opposed to the uppercase letters of dominant genes (see example at right). Using the letter "T" as an example, only in "tt" (the homozygous recessive genotype, indicated by blue) would the recessive physical trait appear. The form "Tt" is called heterozygous (indicated by magenta with a red border), and, even though a recessive allele is present, the dominant gene is the one that appears (becomes the phenotype). The homozygous dominant genotype is "TT" (indicated by red)