Because environmental factors play a large part in the expression of certain traits, the organism may or may not actually develop the predicted disease. A reconstruction of the entire set of chromosomes for a given organism, showing the relative position of every gene. The study of an organism's entire complement of genetic material. The genetic characteristics or description of an organism defined by the nucleotide sequence of the genome. A commonly-occurring genetic variation that can be easily tracked in genetic studies.
Markers can be entire alleles, repetitive stretches of DNA, or single nucleotide polymorphisms.
An alteration in a gene that can be transmitted from one generation to the next. Although many mutations are associated with defects, some have no effect on health of an organism. The part of a gene that does not specify the structure of a protein. Non-coding regions of DNA often contain elements that regulate when a protein will be made, and how much of that protein will be produced. See base pair.