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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.
Genes are how living organisms inherit features or traits from their ancestors; for example, children usually look like their parents because they have inherited their parents' genes. Genetics tries to identify which traits are inherited and to explain how these traits are passed from generation to generation.
Another theory that had some support at that time was the inheritance of acquired characteristics: the belief that individuals inherit traits strengthened by their parents. This theory (commonly associated with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck) is now known to be wrong—the experiences of individuals do not affect the genes they pass to their children. [17]
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.
In the example on the right, both parents are heterozygous, with a genotype of Bb. The offspring can inherit a dominant allele from each parent, making them homozygous with a genotype of BB. The offspring can inherit a dominant allele from one parent and a recessive allele from the other parent, making them heterozygous with a genotype of Bb.
An image of multiple chromosomes, taken from many cells. Plant genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity specifically in plants. [1] [2] It is generally considered a field of biology and botany, but intersects frequently with many other life sciences and is strongly linked with the study of information systems.
Evolution in organisms occurs through changes in heritable characteristics—the inherited characteristics of an organism. In humans, for example, eye colour is an inherited characteristic and an individual might inherit the "brown-eye trait" from one of their parents. [ 21 ]
Homologous chromosomes do not function the same in mitosis as they do in meiosis. Prior to every single mitotic division a cell undergoes, the chromosomes in the parent cell replicate themselves. The homologous chromosomes within the cell will ordinarily not pair up and undergo genetic recombination with each other. [10]