Heredity

Abstract

Heredity is a very old notion, and a central concept in biology: evolution by the means of natural selection is possible because heritable traits are transmitted at each generation. But the mechanisms at work long remain elusive and controversial, so that genetics, the science of biological heredity founded by Gregor Mendel in 1865, and Darwinism have had confl icting relationships for decades. Unifying these disciplines was one of the main outcomes of the Modern Synthesis, and the discovery of the structure of DNA provided a molecular explanation to genes’ structure, inheritance, and mutability. Today, epigenetic features of inheritance tend to change and complexify the way we understand heredity.