Question

What is meant by heredity?

Answer 1

Hint: Our grandparents used to us that we are exactly like our father or mother. No matter how unique you call ourselves, it all happens due to all the traits we have inherited.

Complete Answer:
Asexual or sexual reproduction produces characteristics to be passed from parents to offsprings. This is known as Heredity is a phenomenon. It is also known as vertical transmission. Both physical and mental characteristics of a person are passed on genetically from one generation to another.
An offspring is inclined to the characteristics of its parent cell. During cell division and fertilization, the genes are separated and recombined. By this process, the genetic traits are transferred from parents to their offspring.
During reproduction, the genes of biological parents merge to form a new sole individual. This shuffling of genes is the cause all of us are distinctive. Heredity helps all living beings to inherit characteristics from our parents and other ancestors. Traits could be the color of the hair, eye colour, intelligence, skin complexion, height, etc. The study of heredity is known as genetics.
Now we will see the difference between heredity and hereditary. Hereditary is a correction of the word heredity to explain something that is a consequence of heredity. There are many diseases that are considered to be hereditary in nature.

Note: Heredity is a noun, whereas hereditary is an adjective. Passing of genetic information from parent to child is known as inheritance. Inheritance represents the pathway of the ancestral traits. Hence the terms Heredity, Hereditary and Inheritance are different from each other.