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Public Health Genetics

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Encyclopedia of Public Health

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Introduction

For centuries humans have known that heredity affects health (Adams 1886). In the 1850s Gregor Mendel systematically studied the genetic transmission of observable traits in sweet peas and described different modes of inheritance for traits as the product of the transmission of alleles from parent to offspring (Mendel 1866). Based on Mendel's experiments the distinction between genotype and phenotype was established. Several decades later, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was characterized as the medium in which genetic information is encoded. The development of recombinant DNA technologies in the early 1970s facilitated studies on the functionality and structure of genetic information. The Human Genome Project (HGP) was initiated in 1986 to map the human genometo the nucleotide level and has attained 99% completion by 2003. The HGP has sequenced approximately three billion base pairs and identified approximately 30,000 genes (The National Human Genome Sequencing...

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Acknowledgement

This summary on Public Health Genetics was partly informed by the corresponding essays. I thank R.C. Fry, J.G. Hodge, C. Janson, B. Jennings, P. Leone, J. Lin, Y.A. Mengesha, A. Naj, J.P. O'Connell, R.J. Pearce, S.D. Polley, S. Proksch, U. Ravens, D.C. Rao, L.D. Samson, L. Staber-Theune, and C.G. Tankersley for their contributions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinic and Polyclinic of Dermatology, Medical Faculty, University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

    Jochen Schmitt

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  1. Jochen Schmitt
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Network EUROlifestyle Research Association Public Health Saxony-Saxony Anhalt e.V. Medical Faculty, University of Technology, Fiedlerstr. 27, 01307, Dresden, Germany

    Wilhelm Kirch (Professor Dr. Dr.) (Professor Dr. Dr.)

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Schmitt, J. (2008). Public Health Genetics . In: Kirch, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Public Health. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5614-7_2862

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5614-7_2862

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-5613-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-5614-7

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