Name: Dan J.
Status: Educator
Age: 40s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: March 2004
Question:
Are fingerprints inherited through incomplete dominance
or through codominance? I have seen it mentioned both ways.
Replies:
Sometimes this is a problem of semantics. Some books don't use the term incomplete dominance
at all. Codominance is where the effect of both genes are seen in the phenotype. So,
incomplete dominance really is a form of codominance because the dominant and recessive
forms really are both seen. For example in snapdragons, red is due to 2 reds, white is due
to 2 nonfunctional products, and pink is due to one red and one nonfunctional, so the effects
of both are seen.
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