
Amy S. answered 07/24/19
MS in Molecular Genetics with 10 years of Teaching Experience
Hi Maya!
I think you are asking if a dominant trait is more likely to occur in a population of individuals?
This is a common misconception among students when studying Mendelian genetics. Let me see if I can adjust your thinking a bit here. Just because a trait is dominant does not mean that it is more prevalent in the general population, it simply means that is expressed over a recessive trait. If R means tall and r means short, that would mean that whenever R is expressed the individual would be tall. RR individuals would be tall Rr individuals would still have a tall phenotype and rr individuals would have a short phenotype. However, if we were to look at the example of polydactyly, or extra fingers and toes, this is a dominant trait. As you can observe, not many individuals have extra fingers and toes.
I hope this helps and good luck to you on your studies Maya!