Genetics is a branch of biology which studies genes and heredity Though heredity had been studied for many years, Gregor Mendel was the first to study genetics scientifically. Genetics overlaps with many other areas such as agriculture and medicine.
Genes are composed of DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. They are most often found in the nucleus of cells. The human body has approximately 37 trillion cells. Inside each cell there are between 20,000 to 25,000 genes.
Each species of plants and animals has a set number of chromosones. Humans have 46 chromosones arranged into 23 pairs. They are found in the nucleus of the cell. The sex chromosones are X and Y. Females have the pair XX and males have the pair XY.
The complete set of genes in a cell or organism is the genome. The Human Genome Project contributed detailed information about the function, organization and structure of the complete set of human genes. The project began in 1990 and ended in 2003.
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