Mitochondrial Disease Action Committee - MitoAction. National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) - Homepage. Department of Genetics - Stanford University School of Medicine. Learn Science at Scitable. Half of your DNA is determined by your mother's side, and half is by your father.
So, say, if you seem to look exactly like your mother, and had gotten all phenotypes from her, perhaps some DNA that codes for your body and how your organs run was copied from your father's genetic makeup. So close, yet so far. This quote, taken from a high school student's submission in a national essay contest, represents just one of countless misconceptions many people have about the basic nature of heredity and how our bodies read the instructions stored in our genetic material (Shaw et al. 2008).
Although it is true that half of our genome is inherited from our mother and half from our father, it is certainly not the case that only some of our cells receive instructions from only some of our DNA. Genetics. The information in genomes provides the instruction set for producing each living organism on the planet. While we have a growing understanding of the basic biochemical functions of many of the individual genes in genomes, understanding the complex processes by which this encoded information is read out to orchestrate production of incredibly diverse cell types and organ functions, and how different species use strikingly similar gene sets to nonetheless produce fantastically diverse organismal morphologies with distinct survival and reproductive strategies, comprise many of the deepest questions in all of science.
Moreover, we recognize that inherited or acquired variation in DNA sequence and changes in epigenetic states contribute to the causation of virtually every disease that afflicts our species. Dnapodcast - Episodes. Crash Course! Genetics 101. Understanding Genetics. Genetics Home Reference - Your guide to understanding genetic conditions. Khan Academy. Learn.Genetics™