Think about your traits (characteristics of living things). What color are your eyes? What color is your hair? How tall are you? You might share some traits with family members. There might be other traits that you have that no one else has. Where do your traits come from?
Most traits come from your parents. Inheritance is the passing of traits from parents to children. People in the same family often share many traits. But even if two individuals have the same parents, they are not identical to each other or either parent. There is variation, or difference among individuals, in their traits.
Inherited traits are passed from parents to offspring during reproduction. Traits are passed from parents to child through genes. Genes are the instructions for inherited traits. Each parent passes on one of its two versions of a gene. The genes that each parent passes on are a random mix. Since there are many, many genes, each individual receives a unique set.
But not all traits are inherited. Some are affected by the environment. Things like diet, exercise, and learning can also affect your traits.
What Do You Think? What traits do you share with family members? What traits are different?
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