Classical genetics is the branch of
genetics
Genetics is a branch of biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, ...

based solely on visible results of reproductive acts. It is the oldest discipline in the field of genetics, going back to the experiments on
Mendelian inheritance
Mendelian inheritance is a type of biological
Biology is the natural science
Natural science is a branch of science
Science (from the Latin word ''scientia'', meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that Scientific me ...

by
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Johann Mendel (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a meteorologist, mathematician, biologist, AugustinianAugustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians
Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders tha ...

who made it possible to identify the basic mechanisms of heredity. Subsequently, these mechanisms have been studied and explained at the molecular level.
Classical genetics consists of the techniques and methodologies of genetics that were in use before the advent of
molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, molecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interaction ...
. A key discovery of classical genetics in
eukaryote
Eukaryotes () are organism
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interact ...

s was
genetic linkage
Genetic linkage is the tendency of DNA sequences that are close together on a chromosome to be inherited together during the meiosis phase of sexual reproduction. Two genetic markers that are physically near to each other are unlikely to be separa ...
. The observation that some
gene
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, physiological mecha ...

s do not segregate independently at
meiosis
Meiosis (; , because it is a reductional division) is a special type of of in organisms used to produce the , such as or . It involves two rounds of division that ultimately result in four cells with only one copy of each (). Additionall ...

broke the laws of Mendelian inheritance, and provided science with a way to map characteristics to a location on the
chromosome
A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genome, genetic material of an organism. Most eukaryotic chromosomes include packaging proteins called histones which, aided by Chaperone (protein), chaperone proteins, bind to and ...

s. Linkage maps are still used today, especially in breeding for
plant improvement.
After the discovery of the
genetic code
The genetic code is the set of rules used by living cell (biology), cells to Translation (biology), translate information encoded within genetic material (DNA or Messenger RNA, mRNA sequences of nucleotide triplets, or codons) into proteins. Tran ...

and such tools of
cloning
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction is a type o ...
as
restriction enzyme
A restriction enzyme, restriction endonuclease, or '' restrictase '' is an enzyme
Enzymes () are protein
Proteins are large s and s that comprise one or more long chains of . Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organism ...

s, the avenues of investigation open to geneticists were greatly broadened. Some classical genetic ideas have been supplanted with the mechanistic understanding brought by molecular discoveries, but many remain intact and in use. Classical genetics is often contrasted with
reverse genetics vaccine by reverse genetics techniques
Reverse genetics is a method in molecular genetics
Molecular genetics is a sub-field of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among ...
, and aspects of molecular biology are sometimes referred to as
molecular genetics
Molecular genetics is a sub-field of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the ...
.
Basic definitions
At the base of classical genetics is the concept of a
gene
In biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, physiological mecha ...

, the hereditary factor tied to a particular simple feature (or character).
The set of genes for one or more characters possessed by an individual is the
genotype
The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a specific ...
. A
diploid
Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell (biology), cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for Autosome, autosomal and Pseudoautosomal region, pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of mate ...
individual often has two
allele
An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is one of two, or more, forms of a given gene
In biology, a gene (from ''genos'' "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian_inheritance ...
s for the determination of a character.
Overview
Classical genetics is the part of
genetics
Genetics is a branch of biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular interactions, Physiology, ...

that is solely about the method in which genetic traits are transmitted via the acts of reproduction. Genetics is, generally, the study of genes,
genetic variation
thumb
File:Genetic Variation and Inheritance.svg, Parents have similar gene coding in this specific situation where they reproduce and variation in the offspring is seen. Offspring containing the variation also reproduce and passes down traits t ...

, and
heredity
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits
Trait may refer to:
* Phenotypic trait in biology, which involve genes and characteristics of organisms
* Trait (computer programming), a model for str ...

. The process by which characteristics are passed down from parents to their offspring is called heredity. In the sense of classical genetics, variation is known as the lack of resemblance in related individuals and can be categorized as discontinuous or continuous. Genes are a fundamental part of DNA that is aligned linearly on a eukaryotic chromosome. Chemical information that is transported and encoded by each gene is referred to as a trait. Many organisms possess two genes for each individual trait that is present within that particular individual. These paired genes that control the same trait is classified as an allele. In an individual, the allelic genes that are expressed can be either homozygous, meaning the same, or heterozygous, meaning different. Many pairs of alleles have differing effects that are portrayed in an offspring's
phenotype
In genetics
Genetics is a branch of biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular inter ...

and
genotype
The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a specific ...
. The phenotype is a general term that defines an individual's visible, physical traits. The genotype of an offspring is known as its genetic makeup. The alleles of genes can either be dominant or recessive. A dominant allele needs only one copy to be expressed while a recessive allele needs two copies (homozygous) in a diploid organism to be expressed. Dominant and recessive alleles help to determine the offspring's genotypes, and therefore phenotypes.
History
Classical genetics is often referred to as the oldest form of genetics, and began with
experiments that formulated and defined a fundamental biological concept known as
Mendelian inheritance
Mendelian inheritance is a type of biological
Biology is the natural science
Natural science is a branch of science
Science (from the Latin word ''scientia'', meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that Scientific me ...

. Mendelian inheritance is the process in which genes and traits are passed from a set of parents to their offspring. These inherited traits are passed down mechanistically with one gene from one parent and the second gene from another parent in sexually reproducing organisms. This creates the pair of genes in diploid organisms. Gregor Mendel started his experimentation and study of
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property
Public property i ...

with phenotypes of garden peas and continued the experiments with plants. He focused on the patterns of the traits that were being passed down from one generation to the next generation. This was assessed by
two peas of different colors and observing the resulting phenotypes. After determining how the traits were likely inherited, he began to expand the amount of traits observed and tested and eventually expanded his experimentation by increasing the number of different organisms he tested.
About 150 years ago, Gregor Mendel published his first experiments with the test crossing of ''
Pisum
''Pisum'' is a genus of the family Fabaceae
The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,[Dominance (genetics)
In , dominance is the phenomenon of one variant () of a on a masking or overriding the of a different variant of the same gene on . The first variant is termed dominant and the second recessive. This state of having of the same gene on each ...]
*
Genotype
The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a specific ...
*
Phenotype
In genetics
Genetics is a branch of biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their anatomy, physical structure, Biochemistry, chemical processes, Molecular biology, molecular inter ...

*
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role t ...

References
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