An Introduction to Genetics

Genetics is the study of heredity. Genetics is the study of how heritable traits are transmitted from parents to offspring. It wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century that larger implications of genetic inheritance began to be studied scientifically. Heredity is a biological process where a parent passes certain genes onto their children or offspring. Every child inherits genes from both of their biological parents and these genes in turn express specific traits. Some of these traits may be physical for example hair and eye color and skin color etc. On the other hand some genes may also carry the risk of certain diseases and disorders that may pass on from parents to their offspring. Humans have long observed that traits tend to be similar in families. Mendel’s experiments demonstrated that when sex cells are formed, the factors for each trait that an individual inherits from its parents are separated into different sex cells. When the sex cells unite at conception the resulting offspring will have at least two factors (alleles) for each trait. One inherited factor from the mother and one from the father. Mendel used the laws of probability to demonstrate that when the sex cells are formed, it is a matter of chance as to which factor for a given trait is incorporated into a particular sperm or egg. We now know that simple dominance does not explain all traits. In cases of co-dominance, both forms of the trait are equally expressed. Incomplete dominance results in a blending of traits. In cases of multiple alleles, there are more than just two possible ways a given gene can be expressed. We also now know that most expressed traits, such as the many variations in human skin color, are influenced by many genes all acting on the same apparent trait. In addition, each gene that acts on the trait may have multiple alleles. Environmental factors can also interact with genetic information to supply even more variation. Thus sexual reproduction is the biggest contributor to genetic variation among individuals of a species. Twentieth-century scientists came to understand that combining the ideas of genetics and natural selection could lead to enormous strides in understanding the variety of organisms that inhabit our earth. This text provides a clear, balanced, and comprehensive introduction to genetics and genomics.