A condition where individuals with two different alleles for a gene have higher fitness than those with two identical alleles. This maintains genetic diversity by favoring the heterozygous genotype.
From Greek 'heteros' meaning 'different' and 'zygotes' meaning 'yoked together', combined with 'advantage' from Old French 'avantage'. The concept emerged in the 1940s when geneticists discovered that sometimes being genetically mixed is better than being genetically pure.
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