recessiveness

recessiveness, in genetics, the failure of one of a pair of genes (alleles) present in an individual to express itself in an observable manner because of the greater influence, or dominance, of its opposite-acting partner. Both alleles affect the same inherited characteristic, but the presence of the recessive gene cannot be determined by observation of the organism; i.e., although present in the organism’s genotype, the recessive trait is not evident in its phenotype. The term recessive is applied both to the organism having the alleles of a gene pair in the recessive condition and to the allele whose effect can be masked by another allele of the same gene.

A number of genetic diseases in humans are autosomal recessive, meaning that two mutant recessive alleles are required to produce symptoms of disease. An example is sickle cell anemia, a severe hemoglobin disorder, which results only when a mutant gene (a) is inherited from both parents. In this case, each parent is a carrier, a heterozygote with one normal gene and one mutant gene (Aa) who is phenotypically unaffected. The chance of such a couple producing a child with sickle cell anemia is one out of four for each pregnancy. For couples consisting of one carrier (Aa) and one affected individual (aa), the chance of having an affected child is one out of two for each pregnancy.