where does variation in the traits of a population come from
Genetic variation Genetic variation is brought about, fundamentally, by mutation, which is a permanent change in the chemical structure of chromosomes. Genetic recombination also produces changes within alleles.
Genetics The discoverer of genetics is Gregor Mendel, a late 19th-century scientist and Augustinian friar. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring. He observed that organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete "units of inheritance". This term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a gene.