HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION

HEREDITY:

The process of acquiring characters or traits from parents is called Heredity.

EVOLUTION:

Change in characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection.

ACCUMULATION OF VARIATION DURING REPRODUCTION:

Inheritance from the previous generation provides both a common basic body design, and subtle changes in it, for the next generation. Now think about what would happen when this new generation, in its turn, reproduces. The second generation will have differences that they inherit from the first generation, as well as newly created differences.

If one bacterium divides, and then the resultant two bacteria divide again, the four individual bacteria generated would be very similar. There would be only very minor differences between them, generated due to small inaccuracies in DNA copying.

Rules for the Inheritance of Traits –Mendel’s Contributions