Epistasis

📖 Full definition

Epistasis describes how one gene can "mask" or "modulate" the effect of another. This makes trait prediction based purely on summing alleles imprecise. It is one reason why two people with similar genotypes can have very different phenotypes.

💡 Concrete example

In some animals, one gene controls pigmentation and another the total absence of colour (albinism) — the second overrides the first.

🔄 Synonyms

gene interaction

🔗 See also

• Polygenic →
• Pleiotropy →
• Phenotype →

📰 Articles mentioning this

• Why Does a Child Look More Like One Parent Than the Other? →