The Importance of Context in Genetics

By Herman Frederik Nijhout

Genetic effects can be altered by their surroundings, and this determines the inheritance of traits such as flower color and the likelihood of cancer

Biology Geneaology Genetics

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September-October 2003

Volume 91, Number 5
Page 416

DOI: 10.1511/2003.32.416

In the early days of genetics, scientists thought that each gene coded for a single trait, such as color, shape or size. This belief arose from the 19th-century work of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, who by design or serendipity studied traits whose variation was due almost entirely to variation of a single gene.

Chip Clark/National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute

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