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Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic information of their parents.
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution . Gregor Mendel , a Moravian Augustinian friar working in the 19th century in Brno , was the first to study genetics scientifically.
Human genetics is the study of inheritance as it occurs in human beings.Human genetics encompasses a variety of overlapping fields including: classical genetics, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, biochemical genetics, genomics, population genetics, developmental genetics, clinical genetics, and genetic counseling.
Genetic variation can be identified at many levels. Identifying genetic variation is possible from observations of phenotypic variation in either quantitative traits (traits that vary continuously and are coded for by many genes, e.g., leg length in dogs) or discrete traits (traits that fall into discrete categories and are coded for by one or a few genes, e.g., white, pink, or red petal color ...
The Mendelian gene is the classical gene of genetics and it refers to any heritable trait. This is the gene described in The Selfish Gene. [9] More thorough discussions of this version of a gene can be found in the articles Genetics and Gene-centered view of evolution.
One measure of pleiotropy is the fraction of genetic variance that is common between two distinct complex human traits: e.g., height vs bone density, breast cancer vs heart attack risk, or diabetes vs hypothyroidism risk. This has been calculated for hundreds of pairs of traits, with results shown in the Table.
Medical genetics is the branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders.Medical genetics differs from human genetics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to medicine, while medical genetics refers to the application of genetics to medical care.
Heritability increases when genetics are contributing more variation or because non-genetic factors are contributing less variation; what matters is the relative contribution. Heritability is specific to a particular population in a particular environment.