These resources provide an overview to how the basic principles of inheritance were studied and elucidated by Gregor Mendel. Basic linkage analysis is also described to serve as a foundation for more complex studies of linkage in complex traits.
What can Gregor Mendel’s pea plants tell us about human disease? Single gene disorders, like Huntington’s disease and cystic fibrosis, actually follow Mendelian inheritance patterns.
Sometimes, identical genes will produce different expression patterns. Why? Geneticists are now examining the "penetrance" and "expressivity" of genotypes and their phenotypes.
Three individuals carry the same disease-causing mutation; two suffer from the disease but exhibit different symptoms, while the third is completely unaffected. Why?
Why can you possess traits neither of your parents have? The relationship of genotype to phenotype is rarely as simple as the dominant and recessive patterns described by Mendel.
Epistasis describes how gene interactions can affect phenotypes. Did you know that genes can mask each other's presence or combine to produce an entirely new trait?
Can a viral infection trigger cancer? In some cases, yes. Studies show that for complex diseases such as cancer, changing one protein can have varying effects on disease expression.
Are genes really everything when it comes to determining an organism's characteristics? Find out what else controls our genes, and what this means for the study of human diseases.
This node focuses on the ways scientists investigate the genetic components of specific phenotypes, including more recent technology like genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) help scientists understand the inheritance patterns of disorders on a global scale. But can we make predictions from these studies?
Researchers are using high-throughput genome-wide association studies to tackle some of today's hardest diseases such as obesity. What do gene networks tell us about this epidemic?
Imagine reading this warning on a cigarette package: Smokers with a particular mutation have a dramatically higher risk of developing lung cancer. Would you get tested for this mutation?
