3/7/10 Blog

Dear Past Self,
When learning about Incomplete and Co-Dominance, there are a few important things to remember and consider. Incomplete dominance is when two dominant alleles mix with each other. An example is when a red flower and a yellow produce an orange flower. One way to remember is to think about how something incomplete is not finished, or only partly done. So, with incomplete dominance, two different alleles for a trait are only partially 'used'. Next, Co-dominance is when two alleles are equally dominant. For example, when a flower is multiple different colors, it is co-dominant. One way to remember co-dominance is thinking about how co- means cooperative, or, working together. So, it's like the alleles work together in cooperation.
Remember when trying to decide if someone has a co-dominant or incomplete dominant trait that if the offspring produced is a mix of its parents, it is incompletely dominant. When an offspring has multiple alleles shown in the same trait, it is co-dominant.
To make this easier to learn, you can experiment with breeding flowers and mixing alleles to create a certain flower color. For example, you can breed a white flower and a red flower to produce a pink flower. This would give you a better understanding of the concepts of co-dominance and incomplete dominance.