Quote Originally Posted by socket
So what causes a recessive trait to win out over a dominate one? Is it just randomly programmed into the seed at the time of it's creation?
Take a jar of marbles, black and white, with equal numbers of each.
Black is dominant and white is recessive.
Pick out 2.
What you have in your hand is like the embryo- the seed itself- all the other possible combinations are still in the jar. If you are holding 2 of a single color, the other color CAN'T get passed on by that individual! It's just not there!
You only get expression of the recessive gene if you get 2 white ones because the dominant trait will ALWAYS win if it is present.
Well, unless there is another gene that supresses its expression under certain genetic or environmental conditions.... but that is getting into a lot more complicated shit.