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Genetics tries to identify which traits are inherited and to explain how these traits are passed from generation to generation. Some traits are part of an organism's physical appearance, such as eye color or height. Other sorts of traits are not easily seen and include blood types or resistance to diseases. Some traits are inherited through ...
Autosomal traits are associated with a single gene on an autosome (non-sex chromosome)—they are called "dominant" because a single copy—inherited from either parent—is enough to cause this trait to appear. This often means that one of the parents must also have the same trait, unless it has arisen due to an unlikely new mutation.
However, some people tan more easily than others, due to differences in their genotype: [5] a striking example is people with the inherited trait of albinism, who do not tan at all and are very sensitive to sunburn. [6] Heritable traits are known to be passed from one generation to the next via DNA, a molecule that encodes genetic information. [2]
In addition to studying genetic diseases, the increased availability of genotyping methods has led to the field of pharmacogenetics: the study of how genotype can affect drug responses. [106] Individuals differ in their inherited tendency to develop cancer, and cancer is a genetic disease. The process of cancer development in the body is a ...
An organism's genome is made up by its entire set of DNA and is responsible for its genetic traits, function and development. The composition of DNA itself is an essential component to the field of molecular genetics; it is the basis of how DNA is able to store genetic information, pass it on, and be in a format that can be read and translated ...
Also called an ancestral character, primitive character, or primitive trait. For a given clade, any trait or feature (e.g. a specific phenotype) that appears in the clade's common ancestor; the same trait may also appear in some or all of the lineal descendants included within the clade, indicating that it has undergone little or no significant ...
Genetics is, generally, the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity. The process by which characteristics are passed down from parents to their offspring is called heredity. In the sense of classical genetics, variation is known as the lack of resemblance in related individuals and can be categorized as discontinuous or continuous.
Genetic analysis can be used generally to describe methods both used in and resulting from the sciences of genetics and molecular biology, or to applications resulting from this research. Genetic analysis may be done to identify genetic/inherited disorders and also to make a differential diagnosis in certain somatic diseases such as cancer.