How are the terms homozygous and heterozygous different?
The terms homozygous and heterozygous are related to genetics and refer to the presence of the same or different versions of a particular gene in an organism's DNA.
Homozygous refers to a condition where an organism inherits two identical alleles, or versions of a gene, for a particular trait from both parents. In other words, the two alleles at a specific gene locus are the same. Homozygosity can either be homozygous dominant (both alleles are dominant) or homozygous recessive (both alleles are recessive).
Heterozygous, on the other hand, refers to a condition where an organism inherits two different alleles, or versions of a gene, for a particular trait from each parent. In this case, the two alleles at a specific gene locus are different. Typically, one allele is dominant and the other is recessive.
To summarize, the main difference between homozygous and heterozygous is that homozygous individuals possess two identical alleles for a gene, while heterozygous individuals have two different alleles at the same gene locus.