Genetics definition
Genetics derives from ancient Greek genesis meaning “origin” and refers to the science that studies genes, heredity and diversity in living organisms. It is the branch of Biology that focuses on study of transmission of biological characteristics from parents to children, that is, from generation to generation over time. The functional unit responsible for granting biological characteristics to living organisms is the gene that is defined as a DNA fragment encoding a protein with known function, and may have variants which are called alleles.
His “father” was the monk Gregor Mendel who, between 1856 and 1866, studied the patterns of heredity of biological traits (how they passed from a generation to their descendants), in peas, formulating Mendel’s Laws. However, the term itself was only applied and described in 1908 by William Bateson.
This science has expanded its focus and currently covers the study of structure, function, diversity, and distribution of genes in the context of cell, living organism, and population. As a consequence, new fields of study appeared in Genetics, such as:
- Classical;
- Molecular;
- Population;
- Quantitative;
- Genetic Ecology;
- Epigenetics;
- Genomics;
- Doctor.
Microorganisms, plants, animals and humans are the organisms being studied by this science.
