Heredity

Article

HEREDITY

The inherent property of all organisms is to transmit to their offspring characteristic features of structure, individual development, metabolism, and, consequently, health status and predisposition to many diseases. Signs of not only a normal, but also an altered, painful, pathological state of the body can be inherited.

Human health, as well as predisposition to diseases, are largely hereditary. Being the most important general biological property of living things, heredity provides a variety of forms of living beings. At the same time, changes in specific hereditary properties, which naturally occur due to the process of variability, coupled with the process of natural selection of the best forms, ensure the continuity of the process of evolution of living beings on Earth.

Heredity is possible due to the manifestation of specific features of the structure of the genetic apparatus, its implementation in the process of individual development into certain characteristics and properties of the morphological, physiological or biochemical organization of living beings, as well as the transmission of the exact structure of the genetic apparatus to descendants.

Clarification of the laws of inheritance is the most important achievement of materialistic science. Basic concepts and laws of the doctrine of heredity. One of the fundamental principles of the doctrine of heredity is the characterization of hereditary inclinations - genes as discrete (individual) particles of living matter that determine the characteristics and properties of the organism in the process of its development.

An organism receives hereditary inclinations - genes - from its parents as a result of the sexual process - crossing or division of cells of the original organism during asexual reproduction. In the cells of an adult body, each gene has a pair (allele). When germ cells (gametes) mature, the alleles of the gene diverge into different gametes. Thus, each gamete carries one gene from the pair. This pattern, known as the law of gamete purity, was discovered by G. Mendel.

During fertilization, the sex cells of the father (sperm) and mother (eggs) merge, forming a new cell - a zygote, in which for each of the characteristics there is already a pair of inclinations (genes) - one paternal, the other maternal. In the future new organism, hereditary characteristics are determined by a pair of genes received from both parents.

At the same time, in the child’s body, the signs of each parent manifest themselves differently. For example, it is known that the appearance, details of metabolism, and character traits of a child may be more consistent with the characteristics of one of the parents. This, as G. Mendel established, is due to the fact that there are two types of hereditary inclinations (genes) - strong (dominant) and weak (recessive).

Traits determined by dominant genes necessarily appear in the process of individual development of the organism; the action of recessive genes in the process of their interaction with dominant ones is suppressed.

Dominant factors are designated in capital letters (A, B, C, etc.), and recessive factors are designated in lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). Since the dominant factor A suppresses the action of the recessive factor a in the zygote, organisms will develop from this zygote, the appearance of which will be determined only by factor A. Only in organisms whose cells contain a pair of recessive factors a, the determined trait has the appearance (phenotype), determined by recessive factors (genes).

If parents differed in only one trait, it is not difficult to imagine a pattern of combinations of traits in their offspring. The phenomenon of dominance is widespread in nature, but the manifestation of dominance is different. In some cases, incomplete dominance occurs: the phenotype of the offspring partially manifests the trait of both one and the other parent.

Traits whose inheritance obeys the listed patterns are usually called Mendelian (after G. Mendel). In humans, Mendelian characteristics are, for example, albinism, eye color, hair type (curly or smooth), group differences in various

Heredity is one of the main properties of living matter, which ensures the continuity of the characteristics and characteristics of the development of living organisms over a number of generations. This property is fundamental to all living things and allows them to survive and reproduce in the face of environmental variability.

Heredity manifests itself in the transfer of genetic information from parents to offspring. Genetic information includes information about the morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of the organism. This information is transmitted through DNA molecules, which are contained in the nuclei of cells.

One of the key aspects of heredity is the transmission of genetic information between generations. This occurs due to the process of DNA replication that occurs during cell division. As a result of this process, each new cell receives a copy of the DNA of its parent cell. Thus, genetic information is passed on from parents to children and is preserved over a number of generations.

In addition, heredity also affects the development of the body throughout life. For example, if parents had certain traits, such as eye or hair color, then those traits may be inherited by their children. Also, heredity can affect the health and life expectancy of the body.

Thus, heredity is an important factor determining the individual characteristics and characteristics of living organisms. Knowledge about heredity helps us understand how we inherit our traits and characteristics from our ancestors, and how these traits affect our health and development.

I don’t know how to insert a comment, I was asked to write an article. I will try. Heredity is the property of a biological system to transmit its characteristics to its descendants, which includes, in particular, the transmission of the characteristics of an organism from the parents who gave birth to it. In essence, the phenomenon is a general law that describes the stages of transmission of information about the development of an organism to certain limits from generation to generation. If an allele is lost due to gene mutation or transfer of genetic information, it is not passed on to the next generation. The basis of heredity is a historical document - the gene code recorded in the DNA of our mother. After all, we get our genome from our mother! The genetic code, our mother's set of instructions for creating our bodies, shapes us the same way a car is built from an architect's design. Appearance traits (skin color, eyes, hair, skull shape, body parts), physiological characteristics (blood type) and mental qualities (abilities, temperament) are inherited. The transfer of hereditary characteristics occurs as a result of certain chemical reactions between the DNA of the parents and the DNA of the child at the time of conception. This occurs due to the action of the same name “heteroduplexity”, that is, interconnectedness