Note: This factsheet has been designed as a post-session handout for learners taking part in a Genomics Game session, but can also be used as learning resources in other settings. See the full collection here.
Key facts
- In genomics, inheritance is the passing of genetic information from parents to their children.
- Inheritance is why members of the same family share similar characteristics.
- Individuals inherit their genomes from their parents – 50% from their mother and 50% from their father.
- It will not be the same 50% that is inherited each time, which means siblings from the same parents will be genetically different unless they are identical twins.
- Genetic variants that cause health conditions can be passed on from parents to their children. Understanding this can help with the clinical management of a family.
Did you know?
- We inherit all sorts of characteristics from our parents, from eye and hair colour, to cheek dimples and earlobe type.
- Some women have a rare genetic variant that makes them ‘tetrachromatic’, which means they can see 100 million different colours instead of the one million colours most of us can see.
- Some serious genetic conditions, such as sickle cell disease, are caused by a change to a single letter out of 3 billion that make up our genome.
Find out more
For information about rare inherited conditions, such as cystic fibrosis and familial hypercholesterolaemia, view our factsheet collection.
