Genetic Analysis

The ability to reproduce and transfer genetic information is the most important and fundamental property of all living organisms. All genetic information that determines structure and function is inherited from parents to offspring. Similarly and on a more fundamental level, new cells arise from pre-existing cells, containing genetic information replicated and transferred from parents to progeny cells in the form of DNA. In this way, DNA forms the genetic basis and building blocks of life and represents a cornerstone of modern molecular biology knowledge. The following discussion provides an overview of DNA structure and its transfer mechanisms from one generation to another.

DNA was first discovered in 1869 by chemist Friedrich Miescher as

Genetic code is the combination of 3 nucleotides, which specify a particular amino acid. These three nucleotides are known as a codon. Transfer RNA read this codon on mRNA, which represent over 50 kinds of proteins (Chin, 2014). The genetic code is thus universal. Because of this universality of the codon, the genes can be transferred from one organism to another and be successfully transcribed and translated in their new host (Chin, 2014).

Since codons sequences essentially define unique genes, the study of DNA inheritance can be further explored with Mendelian genetics. The basic principles of inheritance were proposed by Gregor Mendel in the 1860s (Monaghan & Corcos, 1984) . His work with traits in pea plants led him to propose several theories of inheritance. Mendel did all his work and postulated his theories at a time when the genetic material had not been discovered, so the fact that his theories hold true today could be considered quite a significant scientific

There are several important ideas in this law. For every given trait, an individual inherits two alleles for the trait

(one from each parent). Furthermore, as an individual produces gametes, the two alleles segregate so that each gamete contains only a single allele per trait. During fertilization, each gamete contributes one allele per trait, providing the offspring with two alleles per trait (Monaghan & Corcos, 1984). This provides a mechanism for parents to transfer genetic information from parents to offspring, while still maintaining diversity in the genetic information.

Another important law is Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment. This states that alleles must assort independently during gamete formation, meaning that the distribution of alleles for one trait has no influence on the distribution of alleles for the other trait (Gayon, 2016). Furthermore, if two genes are linked, meaning they occur on the same chromosome, they do not assort independently and thus are inherited together, changing the expected outcomes in the offspring (Gayon, 2016). This is an important factor which ensures that diversity is promoted in