Journalists have designated the twenty-first century the Age of Genetics. Almost every day, the media carry at least one story about breakthroughs in this fast-growing field. Unlike other science news that is often buried on the back pages, genetics...

The early twenty-first century is an era of genetics. Genetic science, genetic technologies, genetically based diseases, animal and human cloning, and genetically modified organisms are regular visitors to the news and entertainment culture. Together...

GENETICS AND RELIGION. Science in general, and molecular genetics and the new science of genomics in particular, contest with claims of faith on the same terrain. Genetics is a complex, irreducible set of knowledge about the large molecule DNA, which...

Genetics is the branch of biology concerned with the science of heredity, or the transfer of specific characteristics from one generation to the next. Genetics focuses primarily on genes, coded units found along the DNA molecules of the chromosomes,...

DNA sugar-phosphate backbone with linked bases. The appearance and chemical composition of all life are determined by the action of genes functioning in the context of the conditions surrounding the organism. While both genes and environment...

The "central dogma of molecular biology," elaborated shortly after James Watson (1928- ) and Francis Crick (1916- ) proposed their model of the DNA double helix, states that genetic information is encoded in the primary structure of...

Development is the process through which a multicellular organism arises from a single cell. During development, cells become specialized, or differentiated, taking on different functions and forms. The organism develops a characteristic...

A successful approach to proving that genes are located on the chromosomes in a specific linear sequence evolved in the laboratory of Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945). Using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as their model system, Morgan and his...

By 1900 scientists had been trying to explain how natural selection worked for 40 years. The idea proposed by Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was accepted, but the mechanism was unclear. When they turned to microscopic investigation, identifying structures...

Genetics is the branch of biology dealing with heredity and attempts to explain the similarities and differences that exist between parents and offspring. Although hypotheses on the nature and mechanisms of heredity date to antiquity, genetics did not...

Genetics is the study of the mode and mechanism of the transmission of heritable information. Heredity is the passing of a trait from one generation to the next. The heritable information of an organism is contained in its DNA, and the DNA an organism...

Since the 1950s, studies of the molecular biology of the gene have provided new answers to the fundamental questions about the mechanism of inheritance and the relationship between genes and gene products. Once scientists were able to identify DNA as...

Genetics is the branch of biology dealing with heredity and attempts to explain the similarities and differences that exist between parents and offspring. Although hypotheses on the nature and mechanisms of heredity date to antiquity, genetics did not...

Medical genetics is the application of genetics to the study of human health and diseases. As a profession, medical genetics is usually a mixture of both clinical services and research. Worldwide, services can include diagnosis, counseling, and...

Microbial genetics is a branch of genetics concerned with the transmission of hereditary characters in microorganisms. Within the usual definition, microorganisms include prokaryotes like bacteria, unicellular or mycelial eukaryotes e.g., yeasts and...

All living things pass on traits from one generation to the next according to a systematic set of "blueprints." These blueprints are contained in the long, thread-like chromosomes that lie inside the cell nucleus of all living things. On these...

Microbial genetics is a branch of genetics concerned with the transmission of hereditary characters in microorganisms. Within the usual definition, microorganisms include prokaryotes like bacteria, unicellular or mycelial eukaryotes e.g., yeasts and...

Development in plants refers to the formation of shape and pattern in the multicellular organism. While development can be influenced by environmental factors such as light or temperature, the major factor controlling development of any plant is, of...

Geneticists' increasing ability to isolate, analyze, and possibly alter the relationship between genes and specific traits in humans raises a number of social issues. Though difficult to distinguish between the social, legal, and ethical implications...

In the context of a genetic analysis, a cross refers to the deliberate mating of two parental types of an organism to produce offspring whose phenotype will be studied. Gregor Mendel (1823-1884), who pioneered the discipline of genetics, usually used...

In genetics, a pedigree is a diagram of a family tree showing the relationships between individuals together with relevant facts about their medical histories. A pedigree analysis is the interpretation of these data that allows a better understanding...

Mathematical theory and mathematical techniques are often critical tools in genetic research. Careful studies of data allow researchers to probe selected regions of molecules, or to characterize the distribution of genes in large populations....

"Variety is the spice of life," or so the saying goes. In fact, it is probably more precise to say that variety is the key to life. It is genetic variation that contributes to the diversity in phenotype that provides for richness in human...

Genetics is the scientific study of heredity and variation. It is concerned with the similarities and differences between individual organisms in the same species, and in different species. The characteristics of an individual organism are largely the...

Genetics is the scientific study of the structure, function, and transmission of genes in living things. The field of genetics includes many disciplines and uses many different techniques. Historically, genetic scientists (geneticists) investigated...

A syndrome is a pattern of multiple birth defects or malformations, that are all the result of a single underlying cause. There are more than 1000 different genetic syndromes known, although many are rare. Apert syndrome is chosen here as an example of...

Study of heredity in general and of genes in particular. Modern genetics began in the 19th century with the work of Gregor Mendel, who formulated the basic concepts of heredity. In 1909 the word gene was coined by Wilhelm Johannsen, thus giving...

Two genetic possibilities for a fertilized egg. If the two sex cells (gametes) that fuse during fertilization carry the same form of a gene for a specific trait, the organism is said to be a homozygote for that trait. If the gametes carry differing...

Genetics is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.[1][2] Knowledge of the inheritance of characteristics has been implicitly used since prehistoric times for improving crop plants and animals through selective breeding. However, the...