Genetics: The blueprint of an individual 🧬

Ever wonder why you have your dad’s nose but your mom’s temper? Or why your sibling got the perfect curls while you're stuck with a frizzy mess? Welcome to the wild world of genetics—the science of inheritance, mutations, and why we are the way we are. Genetics is the study of how traits are passed from parents to offspring. It’s like a biological instruction manual that determines everything from your eye colour to hair colour to how your body works. It explains why children look like their parents, why some people are more prone to certain diseases, and how species evolve over time. This field of science revolves around DNA, genes, and chromosomes, which together form the instructions for building and running living organisms. The instructions on how a particular gene expresses itself is written in DNA, a molecule found in almost each and every cell of your body.

1)DNA -DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid, which is basically life’s instruction manual, but in a secret code of four letters: A (Adenine), T (Thymine), C (Cytosine) and G (Guanine). These letters pair up like 2 peas in a pod (A with T, C with G) and form the blueprint of life. Did you know if you stretched out all the DNA in your body, it would reach the sun and back 600 times? A little lesser-known fact about DNA is there are 5 types: A-DNA, B-DNA, C-DNA, D-DNA and Z-DNA with the most common one being B-DNA.

2)GENES - Genes are little segments of DNA that contain the instructions for making proteins, which do all the work in your body. Think of proteins as tiny molecular assistants—some build muscle, some make hormones, and some just tell your hair to be curly or straight. Humans have about 20,000 to 25,000 genes, which sounds like a lot, but bananas have around 30,000., Therefore, a banana is technically more genetically complicated than you.

3)DOMINANT-RECESSIVE TRAITS: Genes come in pairs- one from your mom and the other from your dad and they simply follow the dominant-recessive rule. You get two versions of every gene—one from your mom and one from your dad. These versions are called alleles. Some alleles are stronger (dominant) and some are weaker (recessive).If you get: one dominant and one recessive, dominant wins, and that trait shows up. Two dominant is still dominant. Two recessive is the condition where the recessive trait finally gets its chance to shine. A few dominant traits are brown eyes, dimples and right handedness while recessive traits include blue eyes, not having dimples, and left handedness.

4)MUTATIONS: Mutations usually happen when your DNA, well how do I phrase this? Mutations happen when your DNA gets a little...… creative. DNA makes typos (mutations). Some are harmless, some are helpful, and some cause diseases. Mutations are also how evolution happens—tiny changes over time help species adapt. For example, a mutation gave some people lactose tolerance so they could enjoy ice cream without regret. Meanwhile, another mutation gave cats extra toes, which is somewhat adorable but unnecessary.

USAGE OF GENETICS IN MEDICINE:

Diagnosis of genetic diseases-Genetic advances make it possible to develop early diagnostic tests, new treatments, or interventions ranging from avoiding the disease to minimizing its severity. In particular, genetics plays a crucial role in inherited disease diagnosis. Disorders of this type are due to mutations in a single gene, and these mutation identification allow accurate and early diagnosis.

Personalization of medical treatments-Genetics is also being used to personalize medical treatments. Identifying genetic factors that influence treatment responses allows physicians to select the most effective therapy for each patient and achieve better outcomes with more effective therapies.

 Gene therapies-Gene therapies are an innovative way of treating genetic diseases. They consist of introducing modified genetic material into the patient’s cells with the aim of correcting the mutation responsible for the disease. Although still in the experimental phase, these therapies promise to be an effective way of treating genetic diseases in the future.

Vaccine development-Genetics is being used to develop vaccines more effectively and safely, including RNA-based vaccines. Genetic vaccines are based on the laboratory production of antigenic proteins (proteins capable of generating an immune response) from the virus. According to experts, recombinant DNA or gene splicing technology could be applied to many diseases for which there are currently no preventive vaccines, such as AIDS or malaria.

Risk predictor-Genetics can also predict the risk of developing genetic and non-genetic diseases. It can help physicians make objective decisions about the prevention and treatment of these diseases. In this regard, genetic tests have become increasingly important in recent years, both to detect predisposition to certain hereditary diseases and to detect certain health disorders.

Even though humans are 99.9% genetically identical, that 0.1% difference makes you uniquely you. Genetics determines a lot, but it’s not everything—your environment, experiences, and personal choices shape who you become.

So next time you wonder why you got your grandpa’s bushy eyebrows but your sister got model-worthy cheekbones, just blame it on genetics—the world’s most powerful, slightly unfair, but always fascinating science.