TABLE OF CONTENTS The science of genetics originated when Gregor Johann Mendel published his pioneering work on inheritance in pea plants in 1866 in Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Br nn. But even before that people were aware of inheritance. Farmers used to select seeds of crop plants from those having good traits and even used to adopt breeding techniques to improve the agricultural traits of crop plants. But it was not always a science. Mendel explained his experimental results in the form of laws of heredity. He predicted that there are factors that control each trait, which is transmitted from generation to generation; and that is the subject of the first chapter of this part. It discusses the principles of genetics, the nature of genes and their interaction with environment, genetic recombination, and mutations, their role in variations and evolution, and gene frequencies in a population.
The second chapter mainly deals with the molecular basis of inheritance and the chemical nature and mode of action of genes. It explains the replication of genes, the expression of genes as proteins, and molecular mechanisms of genes regulation. It also discusses the possible involvement of errors in gene regulation and the basis of uncontrolled cell division resulting in the development of cancer.
The third chapter is about the various biomolecular techniques used for studying the genetic materials, such as chromosomes,...
