Glossary P

Polydrug use refers to the same person’s regular use of more than one drug

Polygamy is defined as the practice or condition of men or women marrying or having more than one partner or spouse at one time.

Polygenic refers to a model of inheritance in which more than one gene participates in the process of determining a given characteristic. Polygenic is also defined as a combination of many genes each of which makes a small contribution to an inherited trait of an individual Polygenic also pertains to two (2) or more genes; resulting from many genes as opposed to Monogenic. An example is Eye color. It is Polygenic which is determined by a number of genes.

Polygenic characteristics refers to personal traits or physical properties of a person which are influenced by many genes working in combination.

Polygenic disease is defined as a genetic disease caused by the combined actions of two (2) or more genes. The following are examples of Polygenic diseases: Coronary heart disease, Diabetes, Hypertension, and Peptic ulcers. These disorders depend on the simultaneous presence of several genes or combination of many genes working together. These diseases are not inherited in simple Mendelian patterns.

Polygenic inheritance is when Phenotypes are the result of the combined activity of many separate genes
Polygenic trait refers to a characteristic that is influenced by the action or activity of many genes rather than a single pair.

Polygon is defined as a frequency distribution graph in which a series of points connected by straight lines indicates the frequency of each score from an interval or ratio scale of measurement.