genetics
Sign in to saveGenetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms. 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. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring over time. He observed that organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete "units of inheritance". This term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a
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Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity—how traits pass from parents to offspring—and it matters because heredity is essential to how organisms evolve over time. Scientists like Gregor Mendel discovered that organisms inherit traits through discrete units of inheritance, revealing patterns in how characteristics are handed down through generations.
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Article
29 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- History
- Mendelian genetics
- Molecular genetics
- Features of inheritance
- Discrete inheritance and Mendel's laws
- Notation and diagrams
- Multiple gene interactions
- Molecular basis for inheritance
- DNA and chromosomes
- Reproduction
- Recombination and genetic linkage
- Gene expression
- Genetic code
- Nature and nurture
- Gene regulation
- Genetic change
- Mutations
- Natural selection and evolution
- Research and technology
- Model organisms
- Medicine
- Research methods
- DNA sequencing and genomics
- Society and culture
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms. 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. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring over time. He observed that organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete "units of inheritance". This term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a gene.
Trait inheritance and molecular inheritance mechanisms of genes are still primary principles of genetics in the 21st century, but modern genetics has expanded to study the function and behavior of genes. Gene structure and function, variation, and distribution are studied within the context of the cell, the organism (e.g. dominance), and within the context of a population. Genetics has given rise to a number of subfields, including molecular genetics, epigenetics, population genetics, and paleogenetics. Organisms studied within the broad field span the domains of life (archaea, bacteria, and eukarya).