DOMINANCE

in genetics, greater influence by one of a pair of genes (alleles) that affect the same inherited character. If an individual pea plant with the alleles T and t (T = tallness, t = shortness) is the same height as a TT individual, the T allele (and the trait of tallness) is said to be completely dominant; if the Tt individual is shorter than the TT but still taller than the tt individual, T is said to be partially or incompletely dominant; i.e., it has a greater influence than t but does not completely mask the presence of t, which is said to be recessive. In ecology, the term dominance is used to describe a species of animal or plant that exerts the most influence on the other species of its community because its members are the most abundant or the largest. In animal behaviour, a ruling animal in a social grouping is described as dominant. See also recessiveness.