The word genetics stems from the ancient Greek γενετικός genetikos meaning "genitive"/"generative", … See more

The observation that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding. The modern science of genetics, seeking to … See more

At its most fundamental level, inheritance in organisms occurs by passing discrete heritable units, called genes, from parents to offspring. This property was first observed by Gregor Mendel, who studied the segreg… See more

The molecular basis for genes is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA is composed of deoxyribose (sugar molecule), a phosphate group, and a base (amine group). There are four types of bases: adenine… See more

Genes express their functional effect through the production of proteins, which are molecules responsible for most functions in the cell. Proteins are made up of one or more polypeptide chains, each composed of a sequen… See more

During the process of DNA replication, errors occasionally occur in the polymerization of the second strand. These errors, called mutations, can affect the phenotype of an organism, especially if they occur withi… See more

Although geneticists originally studied inheritance in a wide variety of organisms, the range of species studied has narrowed. One reason is that when significant research already exists for a given organism, … See more