prepotency

American  

[pree-poht-n-see] / priˈpoʊt n si /

noun

Genetics.

1. the ability of one parent to impress its hereditary characters on its progeny because it possesses more homozygous, dominant, or epistatic genes.

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prepotency British  

/ prɪˈpəʊtənsɪ /

noun

1. the state or condition of being prepotent

2. genetics the ability of one parent to transmit more characteristics to its offspring than the other parent

3. botany the ability of pollen from one source to bring about fertilization more readily than that from other sources

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Etymology

Origin of prepotency

1640–50 for general sense “predominance”; < Latin praepotentia. See prepotent, -ency

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

prepotency

As Rockefeller’s oil prepotency waned, global production flourished; in a frantically developing industrialized world, oil reserves took on strategic importance.

From Slate ● Nov. 22, 2013

But it does not follow from this that in each particular case certain characters will reappear: for instance, this will not occur when a race is crossed with another endowed with prepotency of transmission.

From The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2) by Charles Darwin

And when we remember on how delicate a balance of physiological conditions complete correspondency of pollen to ovules depends, we may be prepared to expect that the phenomenon of prepotency is not of uncommon occurrence.

From Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol 3 of 3) Post-Darwinian Questions: Isolation and Physiological Selection by George John Romanes

This has also been enforced by statements as to the prepotency of certain pollen of identical species, but of distinct races.

From On the Genesis of Species by St. George Mivart

Moral prepotency of and physical likeness to his father.

From A Zola Dictionary; the Characters of the Rougon-Macquart Novels of Emile Zola; by J. G Patterson

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