Question

What is inherited trait? Give examples.

Answer 1

Hint: An individual develops traits or characteristics that may be either determined by their genes or by the influence of an environment, hence known as inherited or acquired traits, respectively.

Complete answer:
An inherited trait is a trait that is received by an organism from its parents. These traits are controlled by the genes of individuals and hence, transferred from one generation to another. Examples of inherited traits include hair color, eye color, height, skin color, and susceptibility to certain diseases, etc.

Additional information:
Traits are features or characteristics that distinguish one organism from the other. Traits may be either acquired or inherited.
Acquired traits: These are the traits that a person develops during his lifetime under the influence of environment and disease, injury, accident, etc. These traits cannot be transferred from parents to their offspring as they are not coded by the DNA of living organisms and hence called non-heritable characteristics. Examples of acquired traits include loss of a limb due to an injury.
Inherited traits: These traits are also known as heritable traits because they are transferred from parents to their offsprings and hence, they are determined by the gene or DNA of an individual. These traits have been present in a person since the time of his birth.

Note: In biology, genetics is the study of heredity also called biological inheritance which is the phenomenon of passing on of traits from parents to their offspring either through asexual or sexual reproduction. The father of genetics is Gregor Mendel, who explained the concept of inherited traits in his experiments with the pea plant.