The study of heredity is known as?

• A. Genetics
• B. Evolution
• C. Physiology
• D. Ecology

Answer: (A)

Heredity is the study of how traits are passed from parents to offspring. The field that investigates this transmission, including how genes and alleles govern inherited characteristics, is genetics. Genetics explains why children resemble their parents, how dominant and recessive traits appear, and how variation arises in populations, often through mechanisms described by Mendel’s laws and DNA-based inheritance.

This is different from evolution, which looks at how allele frequencies in a population change over generations; physiology, which focuses on how body systems function; and ecology, which studies interactions among organisms and their environments. Genetics directly addresses the mechanisms of trait transmission, making it the best term for the study of heredity.