Genetics: Lesson 1-2

• Genetikos - genitive/generative
• Genesis - origin
• Genea - genes; race or generation
• Gen - to produce; to become; or to grow into something.
• Genetics - explains one's origin/ancestry
• Genes - "blueprint" of life
• Genetics - study n how traits are passed from parents to their offspring
• Heredity - passing of traits from parents to offspring.
• Genetics is built around molecules called DNA
• DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid
• DNA is replicated and passed from a parent to their offspring during REPRODUCTION.
• Phenocopies - environmental alterations or observable traits/phenotype
• DNA molecule - holds all the genetic information for an organism
• Genotype - set of genes; type of genes in an organism
• Phenotype - observable traits
• Individual characteristics - unique traits only to individual; the differences.
• Species characteristics - observed in most members if their species; the similarities.
• Variations - basic quality of living organisms; provides the raw materials for adaptation.
• Morphological - physical traits or gross anatomical features
• Physiological - biochemical and biophysical processes
• Behavioral - the combined structural and physiological traits; patterns of reaction to its environment.
• Sexual - most important phenotypic characteristics of an organism. It has the capacity for reproduction together with the features associated with it.
• Primary sexual traits - differences in external genitalia
• Secondary sexual traits - non-sexual but related to mating and rearing of youngs.
• Continuous variation - when the characteristics varies in small amounts between individuals.
• Discontinuous variation - when there are no in between (example: tongue rolling and sex)