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homozygous

homozygous

1 9.7
Having two identical copies of a gene in a cell or organism
  • adjective
  • /ˌhoʊməˈzaɪɡəs/
  • Specialized
: homocigoto
  • Individuals who have a homozygous dominant taste allele on chromosome 7 are called super-tasters, whereas homozygous recessive individuals are called non-tasters.
  • homozygous genotype
  • homozygous recessive
  • homozygous individuals

And a true breeding strain in this case will be a homozygous recessive strain.

Examples

  • Individuals with a homozygous genotype inherit the same allele from both parents.

  • We found a high rate of underlying chronic diseases among the patients in this study, especially homozygous sickle cell anemia and diabetes mellitus.

    Academic text (2014)
  • The homozygous dominant is what gets the great bud color.

  • However, all homozygous knockout mutants died within a few days.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Each of these techniques allows the detection of homozygous and heterozygous loci for each DNA sample.

    Academic text (2010)
  • And a true breeding strain in this case will be a homozygous recessive strain.

  • We found that all homozygous amh mutant fish displayed female-biased sex ratios.

    Academic text (2017)
  • In contrast, among African Americans, S allele carriers had lower neuroticism scores than those homozygous for the L allele.

    Academic text (2016)
  • Homozygous females had similar phenotypes to homozygous males, including enlarged abdomens and hypertrophic ovaries (Figure 2A).

    Academic text (2017)
  • Each person was classified as a homozygous secretor (SeSe), a heterozygous secretor (Sese428), or a nonsecretor (se428se428).

    Academic text (2012)

Antonyms

heterozygous
  • Specialized
1 9.9

Having two different versions of a gene, one from each parent

How Heterozygous

heterozygous
  • Specialized
1 9.9
homozygous
  • Specialized
1 9.7

Surface Forms

homozygous positive

Morphology

homozygous = homozygote (semi-transparent) = homo + zygote + ous

Formation from the noun 'homozygote' by adding the adjectival suffix '-ous' is regular, but the scientific combining forms are domain-specific and may be unfamiliar to general learners.

Etymology

Homozygous comes from homo- meaning 'same' and zygous from a word for a 'yoke', a tool that joins two animals. So, homozygous describes two copies of a gene that are 'the same', which is why it means having identical versions of that gene.