Chapter 8: Heredity
Chapter learning goals: Understand the core concepts, explain key processes, interpret diagrams and apply the ideas to board-style questions.
Read each concept, mark definitions and formulae, practise the worked examples, then attempt the revision questions without looking at the answers.
1. Heredity and variation
Heredity is transmission of traits from parents to offspring through genes. Genes are DNA segments located on chromosomes. Variation means differences among individuals of a species. Sexual reproduction creates new combinations of parental genes; mutations can also introduce variation. Variation helps populations respond to changing environments.
2. Inherited and acquired traits
Inherited traits are passed through germ cells via DNA, such as many aspects of blood group. Acquired traits develop during an individual’s lifetime, such as a scar or strengthened muscles from exercise; they generally do not change the DNA in reproductive cells and are not inherited in the same way.
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