This document provides information on heredity, genetics, and inheritance. It discusses how traits are passed from parents to offspring through heredity and genes. The key aspects covered include how heredity allows variations to accumulate over generations, how genetics studies genes and their behavior/distribution, and how DNA contains genetic information that is inherited and allows for copying of genes.

1. PRINCESS V. SALVADOR
Reporter

2. Heredity
 Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring
(from its parent or ancestors). This is the
process by which an offspring
or acquires or becomes
predisposed to the characteristics of its
parent cell or organism. Through heredity,
variations exhibited by individuals can
accumulate and cause some to .
The study of heredity in is
called , which includes the field
of .

3. Trait
 Trait may refer to:
 Trait, a or property of some object
which involve genes and
characteristics of organisms
an approach to the psychological
study of personality
 Trait (computer science), a model for structuring
object-oriented programs
 Traits class, a template class in the C++
programming language

4. Genetics
 Genetics (from γενετικός genetikos,
“genitive” and that from γένεσις genesis,
“origin a discipline of , is the science
of genes, , and variation in
living
 Genetics deals with the molecular structure and
function of genes, with gene behavior in the context
of a or
(e.g. and ), with
patterns of inheritance from parent to offspring, and
with gene distribution, variation and change in
populations. Given that genes are universal to living
organisms, genetics can be applied to the study of
any living system from and ,
through (especially ) to s (for
example in Medical Genetics)

5. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has
been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants
and animals through However, the
modern science of genetics, which seeks to understand the
process of inheritance, only began with the work of
in the mid-19th century.[6] Although he did not know
the physical basis for heredity, Mendel observed that
organisms inherit traits via units of inheritance,
which are now called .
Genes correspond to regions within , a molecule
composed of a chain of four different types of nucleotides—
the sequence of these nucleotides is the genetic information
organisms inherit. DNA naturally occurs in a double stranded
form, with nucleotides on each strand complementary to
each other. Each strand can act as a template for a
new partner strand—this is the physical method for making
copies of genes that can be inherited.

6. Inheritance determines a diversity of traits, some
visible, some not.
tour of the basics
Learn why you share traits with your parents.
tour of the basics
Each of us has a different combination of traits that
makes us unique.

7. Take a look at several inherited
human traits and learn more about them. Which
variations do you have?
learn more
Inheritance and the ABO blood typing system.
learn more
An accidental discovery leads to important clues about
human evolution.
print activities
Fun activities about inherited traits and disease risk to do
with your family or at public gatherings.

8. CHROMOSOMES: THE VEHICLE OF HEREDITY
Chromosomes carry the information to code for
traits and are inherited from both parents
equally.
tour of the basics
Learn the basics about chromosomes.
learn more
To "read" a set of chromosomes, scientists look
for key features to identify their similarities and
differences.

9. interactive explore
Try your hand at organizing a profile of human chromosomes.
learn more
Certain genetic disorders can be predicted by looking at a person's
chromosomes.
learn more
Protective tips at the end of our chromosomes get shorter as we age.
learn more
Find out how people are tracking their ancestry using genetic
genealogy.