Branches and Importance of Genetics
Posted on : 14-01-2019 Posted by : Admin

Various branches of Genetics

The science of genetics has proliferated into numerous distinctive sub-disciplines. The following are some of the distinctive branches of genetics.

1. Plant genetics: The genetics of plants
2. Animal genetics: The genetics of animals
3. Microbial genetics: The genetics of Microorganisms (Viruses, Bacteria, unicellular plants and animals)
4. Human genetics: The study of heredity of human traits and human disorders and correction of human genetic disorders.
5. Viral genetics: The genetics of viruses
6. Fungal genetics: The genetics of Fungus
7. Drosophila genetics: The Genetics of Fruit fly (Drosophila). A good amount of work is been done on drosophila and it has yielded many spectacular insights into the field of genetics and hence a separate field for it.
8. Mendelian Genetics: It involves the study of heredity of quantitative (monogenic) and quantitative (polygenic) traits and the influence of environment on their expressions.
9. Quantitative genetics: It involves the study of heredity of quantitative traits such as height, weight and IQ in human beings and milk production in cattle.
10. Morganian genetics: It includes study of recombination or crossing over in all kinds of organisms such as higher plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and viruses. It also involves the preparation in linkage maps of chromosomes.
11. Non-Mendelian genetics: It involves a study of the role of cytoplasm and its organelles in heredity.
12. Mutation Genetics: They involve study of heredity of both chromosomal changes and also gene mutation.
13. Cytogenetics: It provides cytological explanations of different genetical principles.
14. Molecular genetics: It includes the study of structure and function of gene and regulation of its activity.
15. Transmission genetics: It includes the study of mode of gene transmission from generation to generation. The kind of studies, that Mendel performed are now included in the discipline of transmission genetics.
16. Clinical genetics: Genetics involved in the detection of causes of disease s such as hemophilia, color blindness, diabetes, Phenylketonuria.
17. Forward genetics and reverse genetics: The term reverse genetics has been used in physical mapping and isolation of genes whose protein products are unknown. The term forward genetics has been used genes which are mapped on the basis of phenotype using the technique of classical genetics.
18. Immunogenetics: It deals with production of different types of antibodies. The diversity of the antibodies is found to be under the control of the genetic regulation.
19. Behavioral genetics: It involves the study of interaction of genes with the environment to produce a particular pattern of behaviour 

Importance of Genetics

Genetics explains a lot of things animals, plants and humans like what makes them unique, what makes them different and variable, why do they look like all the other members of their family and why some diseases occur only in plants or animals or humans.

The genetic information can be utilized to diagnose, treat, prevent and cure many diseases in animals, plants and humans. The genes can be better understood as the information, which guide and command the body to make proteins which are need for growth and survival of the organism. Geneticists identify and recognize the importance of these proteins for the betterment of human life with effective medicines and treatments.

Genetic experts can trace and work out family relationships and ancestors by studying the differences in DNA. The common ailments like asthma, diabetes etc., requires the involvement of many different genes. The identification of genetic influences and their interactions with various other factors can help in bringing great advancements in medical research.

Scientists have decoded the genomes of humans and various other plants and animals. This decoding would help in improving the yield, selecting better traits, producing disease resistant varieties which are the need of the hour to feed ever growing human population. Humans have about 24,000 different genes each made up a few hundred to a few thousand base pairs of DNA. All these genes are contained in 23 pairs of chromosomes, each of which carry thousands of different genes and millions of base pairs of DNA. When these genes are altered, there would be a direct effect on the synthesis of the corresponding proteins and consequently this will lead to diseases.

In recent years the advances in the field of biotechnology has created genetically engineered strains of bacteria and fungi that carry specific genes from unrelated organisms. These microbes produce useful compounds as insulin, human growth hormone, antiviral and anticancer agents. There are many moral dilemmas associated with genetic disease identifications and treatment. An estimated 8 per cent of our population survives with severe physical/mental genetic disorders. This percentage may increase with the increasing population. And it will certainly increase financial burden on human society.

Finally, the information of genetic mechanisms has made us aware of some new dangers too. Some genetic experts fear there may be an accidental release of artificial pathogen from labs which may cause great disaster. Also some genetic experts fear that increased exposure of plant or animal products to the chemicals may bring about undesirable and haphazard outcomes. Anyways, modern genetic experts have revolutionized agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, philosophy, sociology, law, ecology and many other branches of biology. Moreover the science of genetics has helped in removing many faulty concepts of inheritance.

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1. What is the scientific name of Fruit fly?
2. Describe Transmission genetics?
3. Write about mutations.
   
4. Write about the importance of Genetics for Humans?
5. Importance of Genetics in plants?
6. Importance of Genetics in Animals?

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