It is the biological inheritance involved in the transmission of traits or genetic information from parents to the next generation through genes.
This allows the child to obtain the genetic information of his parents through either asexual or sexual reproduction.
The study of heredity in biology is genetics.
Importance of heredity:
This determines which traits are passed from the parent to the offspring.
Successful traits are inherited more often and change species over time.
Changes in traits allow an organism to adapt to a particular environment and increase survival.
Through heredity, variations between individuals can accumulate and cause species to evolve by natural selection.
An understanding of human heritability is of vital importance in the prediction, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases with a genetic component.
Example: Heredity of hemophilia:
Hemophilia is an X-linked condition, meaning it is only carried on the X chromosome.
Male infants have an XY pairing with the X chromosome inherited from their mother and the Y chromosome inherited from their father. Female infants have an XX pairing with one X chromosome inherited from their mother and one from their father.
If a male child inherits his mother’s unaffected X chromosome, he will not have hemophilia. If, however, he inherits his mother’s affected X chromosome, he will have hemophilia.
If a female child inherits her mother’s unaffected X chromosome she will not be a carrier; but if she receives the affected X chromosome, she will be a carrier. There is a 50% chance that a female carrier’s son (XY) will have hemophilia and a 50% that her daughter (XX) will be a carrier just like her.
