Define heredity. Explain the mechanism of hereditary changes.

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1. Heredity is the transfer of biological characters from one generation to the next through genes.
2. Sometimes sudden changes occur in the genes.
3. A nucleotide of the gene changes its position that causes a minor change called mutation. This causes hereditary changes.
4. During meiosis crossing over occurs between the homologous chromosomes and thereby genetic recombination occurs.
5. This is also responsible for hereditary changes.

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