Heredity

From the lesson on cells, we learnt that every cell has a nucleus. This nucleus has rod-like structures which contains genes.

The genes are chemical units responsible for the transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring.

So, both the sperm cell and egg cell from both parents have chromosomes which have the genes responsible for transfer of characteristics from parent to offspring.

Now, the sperm cell has chromosomes which are 23 pairs and the egg cell also has 46 chromosomes which is 23 pairs. During the fusion of the sperm cell and egg cell, 23 chromosomes from the sperm cell (male) fuse with 23 chromosomes from the egg cell (female). This results in 46 chromosomes for the zygote. The zygote carries these 46 chromosomes throughout 175 development and growth stages to become a baby which they keep this into their old age. This makes it possible for new born babies to carry some character traits of both parents.

NB: the main reason why offspring look like their parents is because they inherit genes from both parents.

Characteristics that can be inherited by offspring from their parent are known as inheritable characteristics