What is reproduction?

HEREDITY, GENETICS AND VARIATIONS

• Like begets like is the well-known dogma is associated with
heredity.
• It means that all living organisms tend to produce young ones
that resemble themselves.
• Heredity is the cause of similarities between individuals of a
species.
• Continuity or transmission of features from one generation to
another is termed as heredity.
• In other words, the phenomenon by which living organisms
transmit parental characteristics to the successive generation is
called heredity or inheritance.
• During the process of reproduction the hereditary informations
are transmitted from parents to the off springs.
• In sexual reproduction, two parents contribute their gametes for
reproduction process.
• The contribution made by two parents also brings about variation among
offsprings besides a number of similarities in the offspring.
• Differences among individuals of a species are called variations.
• If you observe, one or the other kind of variation is present among the
siblings.
• Even twins are not exactly same, however such variation among offsprings
is not observed in those organisms that reproduce asexually.
• This is because only one parent is contributing the germ cells for
reproduction.
• The branch of science which deals with the mechanisms responsible for
similarities and dissimilarities among closely-related species is called
genetics.
• Genetics not only deals with the inheritance of features from parents to
offsprings but also explains about the variation among different individuals
of a species.
• Thus, we can say that genetics is the science of heredity and variation.