Genetics is a branch of biology that studies inheritance and variations. Inheritance is the process of passing characters from parents to offspring. Variation, on the other hand, is the degree by which an offspring differs from its parents.
Gregor Johann Mendel, the father of Genetics, was an Augustinian priest and scientist. He proposed several laws of inheritance by conducting extensive research and hybridization experiments on garden peas for about seven years. Hybridization is the process of crossing two individuals differing in at least one character, resulting in a hybrid individual.
A gene or factor is the functional unit of heredity material. The alternative form of a gene located at a specific position on a specific chromosome is known as the allele. A trait can be defined as a distinct variant of an organism’s phenotypic character. Every organism possesses two alleles for each character. If these two alleles for a particular character are identical, it is homozygous, and the individual is called a homozygote.