Definition

Genetics (from the "Gen", which comes from the Greek word γένος and means "descent") is a discipline of biology is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit their parents' character has been used since prehistoric times to improve crops and animals through selective breeding. However, the modern science of genetics, which aims to understand the process of inheritance, only began with the work of Gregor Mendel in the mid-nineteenth century. Although he did not know the physical basis of heredity, Mendel observed that organisms inherit characteristics of separately-these basic units of inheritance are now called genes.