Dominance versus overdominance

Okay kiddo, let me explain to you what is dominance and overdominance.

Dominance is when something is more powerful or important than something else. For example, if you have a pet dog, you might be the dominant one because you tell the dog what to do and are in charge of its food and water.

Overdominance is a special kind of dominance that happens in genetics. Imagine you have two copies of a gene, one from your mom and one from your dad. Sometimes, one of these copies can be more important than the other. This means that even if you have one good copy and one bad copy, the good copy can be so strong that it makes up for the bad copy.

Let's use the example of sickle cell anemia, a disease that affects red blood cells. This disease is caused by having two bad copies of a gene that makes a protein called hemoglobin. But if you have one good copy and one bad copy, you will still be okay because the good copy can compensate for the bad one. In this case, the good copy is said to be overdominant.

So, dominance is when one thing is more powerful or important than another, while overdominance is a special kind of dominance that happens in genetics and occurs when one gene copy is so strong that it can make up for a bad copy.