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"Biologists and informaticists at Indiana University have produced one of the most extensive pictures ever of mutation processes in the DNA sequence of an organism, elucidating important new evolutionary information about the molecular nature of mutations and how fast those heritable changes occur."

Genetic tests are now available to look for specific heritable diseases like Huntington's, assess your risk of developing conditions like heart disease, and more. Learn about four different types of genetic testing and take our poll. Would you take these tests yourself?

Dogs are excellent models for studying genetics, especially disease genetics. Work done in the last 20 years has shown that dogs share many gene-related disorders with people. Each breed is a closed reproductive population with distinct rates of heritable diseases, which dramatically increases the odds of finding disease-related loci. In creating new dog breeds, we reduce the gene pool within those populations, and fix many alleles. This homogeneous background makes it much easier to map QTLs and perform linkage analyses

This hands-on activity, used in conjunction with the film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans, teaches students about population genetics, the Hardy-Weinberg principle, and how natural selection alters the frequency distribution of heritable traits. It uses simple simulations to illustrate these complex concepts and includes exercises such as calculating allele and genotype frequencies, graphing and interpretation of data, and designing experiments to reinforce key concepts in population genetics.

Epigenetics refers to heritable changes in gene expression caused by non-genetic mechanisms, thus by alterations other than in the DNA sequence. Epigenetic changes can persist throughout an organism's lifetime and be passed on to multiple generations. Site offers 4 part "crash course" in epigenetics

3:20 video Researchers are clarifying epigenetic intricacies such as missing heritability, disease markers, methylated proteins, and imprinted genes. Learn about the history of epigenetics in this timeline spanning 130 years.

High heritability points to a major role for inherited genetic variants in the aetiology of schizophrenia7, 8. Although risk variants range in frequency from common to extremely rare9, estimates10, 11 suggest half to a third of the genetic risk of schizophrenia is indexed by common alleles genotyped by current genome-wide association study (GWAS) arrays. Thus, GWAS is potentially an important tool for understanding the biological underpinnings of schizophrenia

The theory of evolution by natural selection is simple, elegant, and profound. Yet, a large number of undergraduate students including biology majors, medical students, and pre-service science teachers maintain a large set of misconceptions that interfere with a solid understanding of the process of natural selection. It is also well known that lecturing is an insufficient strategy to help students confront and correct these misconceptions. This activity uses the evolution of coat color in oldfield mice (Peromyscus polionotus) as the basis of a case study in which students investigate the role of variation, heritability, and selection in the evolution of a trait. Students examine graphs, data, and excerpts from a series of papers that have been published about this system over the last 100 years. The content is delivered as an interrupted case and encourages peer-to-peer teaching and interaction. The case is appropriate for use in non-major, introductory, or advanced biology courses.

Family resemblance is hard to hide! Genetics are powerful when it comes to determining how you look, grow, and develop, and you get your genetics directly from mom and dad. Plus, growing up watching and learning from your parents only makes you that much more likely to pick up their mannerisms, along with a combination of their physical attributes.