Genetics

Genetics is the branch of biology that studies genes, heredity, and variation in organisms. It explains how biological information is transmitted and how differences arise within and between populations.

DNA replication: DNA replication is the process by which a cell copies its DNA before division. Accurate copying lets genetic information pass from a cell to its descendants.
Gene: A gene is a DNA sequence that contributes to a functional product or regulates its production. Genes are the units whose inheritance and variation genetics investigates.
Gregor Mendel: Gregor Mendel was a nineteenth-century monk whose pea-plant experiments revealed statistical patterns of inheritance. His experiments supplied foundational rules for inheritance of discrete traits.
Medical genetics: Medical genetics applies genetic principles to the diagnosis, prevention, and management of inherited conditions. It uses inheritance and variation to explain and assess human disease.
Epigenetics: Epigenetics studies changes in gene activity that occur without changing the underlying DNA sequence. It addresses heritable regulation that sequence-centered genetics alone does not describe.
Gene expression: Gene expression is the process by which information encoded in a gene produces a functional RNA or protein. It connects inherited DNA sequences to the molecules that shape traits.
Allele: An allele is one of two or more alternative forms of a genetic sequence at a locus. Alleles provide a basic way to describe inherited differences.
Mendelian inheritance: Mendelian inheritance describes how alleles segregate and assort according to patterns identified by Gregor Mendel. It captures the inheritance patterns that first gave genetics a predictive framework.
Population genetics: Population genetics studies genetic variation and allele frequencies in populations over time. It quantifies how mutation, migration, selection, and drift change variation.
Environmental inheritance: Environmental inheritance is the transmission of environmental influences or conditions across generations without DNA sequence change. It distinguishes inherited effects that can arise outside genetic transmission.

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