Genetics is the science of variations and heredity in all living organisms. It deals with all the characters and traits which one living organism inherits from its parents. Genetics is a very interesting field of biology. This science is used to improve the crop plants and is used in breeding of animals to get more healthy animals. Gregor Mendel was the first person who understood the process of inheritance. Though he was unaware of the physical basis for heredity but he observed that living organisms inherit traits from their parents through discrete units of inheritance which are now called as genes.
Genes are present in the regions within the DNA. DNA is the basic unit of our body and of all other living organisms. It is a molecule composed of four nucleotides; Adenine, Guanine, Thymine and cytosine. Nucleotides form the double strands of DNA, two nucleotides on each strand which are complementary to each other. Each strand of nucleotides acts as a template for the other strand. This is how genes are made and genetic information is transferred in the off springs. Genes show different traits in a person for example the hair color, eye color, skin color and other features also. It is because of the genes how the person looks like. Science of genetics has made it possible to study in depth all the traits and characters which living beings inherit from their parents. Although genetics plays an important role in the appearance and behavior of the person but the environment and nutrition go side by side with it.
Though the work of genetics was started by Gregor Mendel but there were other scientists also who believed that individuals inherit smooth blend of traits from their parents. But after experiments Mendel disproved their theory and explained that traits are composed of distinctive genes rather than smooth blending of traits. One scientist Lamark proposed that parents' strengthened traits are inherited in the off springs. But modern genetics disproved this theory and stated that experiences of the parents do not affect the genes.
Modern science of genetics has gotten its roots from the experiments of Gregor Mendel who was a monk and scientist at the same time. Genetics has some branches like Molecular Genetics and mendelian Genetics. Molecular Genetics deals with the study of chromosomes and genes. This science of genetics proves that out of proteins and DNA, it's the DNA which transfers genetic traits from parents to off springs. Mendelion Genetics deals with the study of laws of Mendel. Mendel did experiments on pea plants and studied the process of inheritance mathematically. Mendel's work did not get much understanding until his death. His work showed that process of inheritance is not particular but it is acquired.
Now a day Genetics has gotten so much progress that many heredity problems can be solved with it or at least these problems can be identified by using various methods of Genetics. Many types of mutations are studied under the science of genetics. When the process of DNA replication occurs, there are chances that some errors occur in the chromosomes. These errors are called mutations. Though chances of mutations are rare but if error occurs in genetic code then organism can experience various diseases such as Down's syndrome.
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