The results of inbreeding can be very distressing to witness. In this Instagram post, we see a captive lion with skull ...

Pure-bred dogs have been regarded as superior to crossbreeds or what some people refer to as mutts. However, we now ...

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This week I’ve been thinking about babies. Healthy ones. Perfect ones. As you may have read last week, my colleague Antonio Regalado came face to face ...

In this series, ‘Genomics 101’, we go back to basics and explore some of the most important topics in genomics. In this blog, we explain the meaning of dominant and recessive genes, and how they are ...

Genetic disorders are diseases caused by an abnormality in a gene, often described as a mutation. When such diseases are inherited (rather than resulting from a random mutation), they are passed along ...

Heterozygous genotypes can affect traits like eye and skin color where one allele may be dominant over another. Certain diseases like sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis can have a heterozygote ...

Populations live in rapidly changing environments – droughts come and go, food sources change, human activities reshape habitats. For scientists, this raises a fundamental puzzle: How do populations ...

Your genes code for all your traits. Some genes are dominant and expressed if you receive a copy from one parent. Others are recessive and only apparent if you receive a copy from both parents. Genes ...

Rare genetic traits are features that are uncommon within the general population. They can lead to different observable features or to rare physical abilities. Rare genetic traits are typically ...

As a group, carriers of recessive disorders are slightly less healthy and have a reduced chance of having offspring. This disadvantage is greatest for carriers of a recessive gene for intellectual ...

Some health problems are passed down through families. There are different ways this can happen. To have a child born with what’s called an “autosomal recessive disease” like sickle cell disease or ...

In a busy, terraced house in Bradford, three sisters are animatedly chatting. It's a big day at their home: a beautician sits on their sofa, styling their hair and makeup. The room is warm with fun ...