Recessive


A condition that appears only in individuals who have received two copies of a mutant gene, one copy from each parent. The individuals with a double dose of the mutated gene are called homozygotes. Their parents, each with a single dose of the mutated gene, appear normal and are called heterozygotes, or gene carriers.

There are two types of recessive diseases — autosomal recessive and X-linked recessive — that describe different patterns of inheritance.

The opposite of recessive is dominant. See also Autosomal recessive; Dominant; and X-linked recessive.

Read Also:

  • Recessive, autosomal

    Canavan disease of the brain Congenital neutropenia, a blood condition Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, a birth defect Familial Mediterranean fever with attacks of fever and pain Fanconi anemia, a progressive blood disorder with a high risk of leukemia Gaucher disease (a common genetic disease of people of Jewish descent) Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS), a series of carbohydrate storage […]

  • Recessive, X-linked

    A gene on the X chromosome that expresses itself only when there is no different gene present at that locus (spot on the chromosome). For example, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder. A DMD boy has the DMD gene on his sole X chromosome (and so is said to be hemizygous for […]

  • Recipient

    In medicine, someone who is given something, such as a blood transfusion or an organ transplant, that is derived from another person (the donor).

  • Recombinant

    A person with a new combination of genes, a combination not present in either parent, due to parental recombination of those genes.

  • Reciprocal translocation

    A type of chromosome rearrangement involving the exchange of chromosome segments between two chromosomes that do not belong to the same pair of chromosomes. A specific reciprocal translocation might, for example, involve the swap of material between chromosomes 1 and 19.


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