Main Page
Genetics and Evolution are central to modern biological understanding. Genetics itself is a huge, rapidly changing field and can be divided into several main categories.
- Classical Genetics
- Quantitative Genetics
- Population Genetics
- Molecular Genetics
- Genetic Engineering
- Genetics and Ethics
However, this kind of division is very arbitrary and heavily influenced by historical progression of the different sub-fields. There are additional large fields that could be listed, but are not as primary as the divisions above, such as:
- Ancient DNA
- Conservation Genetics
- Developmental Genetics
- Ecological Genetics
- Epigenetics
- Genetic Anthropology
- Human and Medical Genetics
- Metagenomics
- Microbiome Genetics
- Personal Genomics
I am purposely avoiding dividing the field by taxonomy (except for human genetics and related fields). The classical taxonomic divisions of biology are loosing their usefulness. A large part of this is due to genetics and evolution where the same basic principles can apply across a wide range of organisms. I am also avoiding separating genetics and genomics, some tools and approaches may be different but these are really ends of a continuum that has been artificially exaggerated.
The general scope of genetics would not be complete without also considering the history of genetics, genetics and ethics, and especially the intersection of these two areas, including the history of eugenics.
One way to get started is by reading about what a gene is, genetic heritability versus environmental effects on phenotype variance, and the structure of DNA.
