The Mystery of Heredity

How do you start aThe Mystery of Heredity research paper? Our expert writers suggest like this:

For thousands of years, recorded history has recounted the human struggle to understand the intricacies of reproduction.Parallel to this struggle was the effort to unlock the enigma of the mechanism responsible for passing particular characteristics, traits, and qualities from one generation to the next. Throughout history, humans have attempted to use this information to predict and direct the observable characteristics of food crops, domesticated livestock, and human children.These methods have ranged from early primitive techniques based in mysticism and magic to the well-developed theories based on prolonged observation and formal experimentation advanced by 19th-century luminaries like Mendel and Charles Darwin.These and other prominent scientific thinkers gradually began to gain a better understanding of the complex system of genetic factors responsible for the thousands of variables that constitute each human being's outward appearance.

However, in recent decades, researchers have begun to suspect that the system of events that results in the outward expression of a specific combination of observable and imperceptible traits is not strictly determined by a unique blend of genes.In fact, some scientists have posited that certain genetic, environmental and circumstantial factors may effect the final expression of an individual's genetic make-up.In your research paper, examine several of the conditions that are typically suspected of exerting some degree of influence over the ultimate expression of human genes.

In order to frame this discussion properly, it is necessary to begin by presenting a definition of the term phenotype. When using this word, one refers to all of the observable characteristics of a particular organism, including characteristics such as the following:

• Human size
• The shape of our bodies
• Color of skin
• Human behaviors

All of these are determined by the unique composition of the entity's genetic features, or genotype.

The great majority of early conjectures about the relationship between phenotype and genotype asserted a constant, immutable association between the two factors.In other words, most early scientists believed that the singular expression of traits a person or animal displayed was directly received from its parents and was fixed and permanent.

In the twentieth century, scientists gradually began to change their thinking about the relationship between genotype and phenotype.Experimental data began to show that in many instances, genotype does not always dictate the resulting phenotype. Scientists began to become aware of the fact that "genes (and their parts, called alleles) act in unpredictable ways, their expression as proteins is modified by RNA, the cell's environment as well as the physiology of the body as a whole"