Single gene inheritance

In the simple model used for single gene inheritance, an organism's body cells contain two copies of a gene, one on each chromosome of a pair. One copy was inherited from each parent. The two alleles can therefore be identical or different.

Some characteristics follow single-gene inheritance. A useful example is pea plant height, studied by Gregor Mendel. In this example, the allele for tall plants is dominant and the allele for short plants is recessive.