This document defines several genetic terms: congenital means present at birth but not necessarily inherited; hereditary means apparent at birth but may not show for years; autosomal dominant inheritance affects every person with an affected parent and is transmitted to offspring; autosomal recessive only affects siblings and has a 1 in 4 chance in siblings; X-linked dominant exhibits higher in females due to twice as many X chromosomes and females transmit to half offspring; X-linked recessive is much higher in males than females.

1. Definitions

2. Congenital
Present at or before birth
but not necessarily
inherited that is
transmitted through the
genes

3. Hereditary
They are apparent at
birth but some may
not become evident
for years

4. Autosomal dominant inheritance
Every affected person has at least one affected parent
males and females are both affected likely
there is no skipping of generation
affected person typically transmits rates to their
offsprings

5. Autosomal recessive inheritance
Appear only in their siblings, not on their
offsprings parent or other relatives
One fourth siblings are affected
males and females are equally likely to be
affected

6. X-linked dominant
Since females have twice as many X
chromosomes, they exhibit a higher
frequency of trait
affected female will transmit the
genes to half of her offsprings

7. X-linked recessive
Incidence of the trait
is much higher in
males than in females