Differentiate between dominant and recessive traits.

Dominant and recessive traits are types of genetic traits that differ in their expression in the presence of contrasting alleles.

A dominant trait is the one that is expressed in an organism even if only one copy of its allele is present. It masks the effect of the recessive allele. For example, in pea plants, tallness (T) is a dominant trait.

A recessive trait is expressed only when both alleles are recessive. It remains hidden in the presence of a dominant allele. For example, dwarfness (t) in pea plants is a recessive trait.

In a heterozygous condition (Tt), only the dominant trait (tallness) is visible, while the recessive trait does not appear.

Thus, dominant traits determine the visible characteristics in mixed allele conditions, whereas recessive traits appear only in pure conditions.