The word genetics stems from the ancient Greek γενετικός genetikos meaning "genitive"/"generative", which in turn derives from γένεσις genesis meaning "origin". 展开

DNA and chromosomes
The molecular basis for genes is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA is composed of deoxyribose (sugar molecule), a phosphate group, and … 展开

Genetic code
Genes express their functional effect through the production of proteins, which are molecules responsible … 展开

Model organisms
Although geneticists originally studied inheritance in a wide variety of organisms, the range of species studied has narrowed. One reason is that when significant research already exists for a given organism, new … 展开

The observation that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through 展开

Discrete inheritance and Mendel's laws
At its most fundamental level, inheritance in organisms occurs by passing discrete heritable units, called 展开

Mutations
During the process of DNA replication, errors occasionally occur in the polymerization of the second strand. These errors, called … 展开