Sometimes one person with a dominant allele will express a trait, yet that same genotype in another person will remain silent. This is an example of differences in penetrance. In classic Mendelian genetics, if an individual carries a dominant allele, the trait will be expressed (genotype = phenotype). However, if all carriers of a certain dominant allele in a population do not express the trait (same genotypes/different phenotypes), the gene is said to have incomplete penetrance.
![Penetrance](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006123734im_/http://www.cancer.gov/images/Documents/a3a0ee76-1bc5-4490-aeaa-2248702c668f/cancer30new.jpg)
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