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| Meaning of Heredity |
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| Heredity may be defined as the transmission of characteristics through generations. The characteristics include all physical, physiological and psychological characteristics in organisms. All these characteristics are called the traits. |
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| For example: in man traits such as height, colour of the eyes, intelligence, etc. are all inheritable. |
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| The study of the mechanism of transmission of characteristics from parents to the next generations is called genetics. |
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| The study of genetics was started by Gregor Mendel an Austrian monk during 1850s. However, his studies were not recognised by the world till after his death. Mendel is known as the Father of Genetics. |
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| Before Mendel, although people knew that parents with blue eyes would get blue eyed children, baldness in the family, etc., they did not know the exact mechanism of transfer of these traits from the parents to the offspring. They did not know that there is a physical basis for heredity. This was identified by Mendel through his pioneering work. |
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