Genetics

All of the unique structures of living things (traits) are made of proteins, and proteins are coded for by DNA.  This idea about the flow of information is so important to biology that they call it Central Dogma:

DNA -->  RNA -->  Proteins

Genetics is the study of how genes (DNA) and traits (Proteins) are passed on from generation to generation.  Technically, you inherit gametes from each parent that combine to make a zygote, and those gametes are created by meiosis.  So genetics is actually something more like this:

Meiosis -->  Gametes -->  Fertilization -->  DNA -->  RNA -->  Protein -->  Traits

• Alleles are different forms of a gene that parents could pass on

• Punnett Squares show the chances of a zygote inheriting and expressing those alleles

• Protein Synthesis is the process that uses genetic information to make physical proteins