Genetics is a branch of biology.
We must go back to Greek to establish the etymological origin of the concept of genetics . More precisely, within this language we can establish that it is formed from the union of two words: genos, which can be translated as race, birth or origin, and the suffix -ikos, which means "relative to."
Therefore, by establishing this union and the corresponding description of the etymological origin, we can determine that the literal meaning of genetics is that which is relative to the birth or race of a being .
Concept of genetics
Genetics is the branch of biology that deals with the study of what is transmitted in successive generations through genes . The concept also refers to what is linked to the beginning , the start or the root of something.
For example: "The child suffers from a genetic disease and urgently needs a transplant to be able to continue living" , "I believe that the secret of my jumping ability lies in genetics" , "He is a dog with good genetics that will surely remain healthy until old age" .
Genetics can be subdivided into different branches, such as molecular (focused on how DNA is composed and duplicated), quantitative (studies the effects that genes generate on a phenotype) and Mendelian or classical (focused on the knowledge of genes and chromosomes to understand how they are transmitted through different generations), among many others.
Genetic information is encoded in DNA.
Transmission of inheritance
Genetics, in short, analyzes how the inheritance of biology is transmitted from one individual to another. Its main objective is to explain the way in which traits and various qualities are passed from parents to their descendants.
These transfers are developed through genes , composed of fragments of deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA , a molecule responsible for encoding the genetic data present in cells.
DNA , which controls the functions, behavior and structure of each cell, has the ability to replicate and produce a copy of itself.
Genetic diseases
Based on all of the above, we can establish that there are also so-called genetic diseases, which are those that occur as a consequence of the alteration of the genome. At a basic level, they can be classified as hereditary and non-hereditary.
Among the diseases of this type, there are several that stand out, including, for example, Tourette syndrome, which is fundamentally characterized because the person in question has a neuropsychiatric disorder that leads to a multitude of tics, whether vocal or physical.
Canavan disease is also a hereditary disease characterized by the progressive degeneration of the white matter in the brain. This means that the person who suffers from it has a very short lifespan and, at most, only reaches the first years of adulthood.