Cystic Fibrosis (also known as CF, mucovoidosis, or mucoviscidosis) is a hereditary

disease affecting the exocrine (mucus) glands of the lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines,
causing progressive disability due to multisystem failure.

Abnormally thick mucus results in frequent lung infections. Diminished secretion of

pancreatic enzymes is the main cause of poor growth, greasy stools, and deficiency in fat-
soluble vitamins. Males can be infertile due to the condition congenital bilateral absence
of the vas deferens. Often, symptoms of CF appear in infancy and childhood. Meconium
ileus is a typical finding in newborn babies with CF.

An allele (pronounced /ˈæliːl/ (UK), /əˈliːl/ (US)) (from the Greek αλληλος allelos,
meaning each other) is one member of a pair or series of different forms of a gene.
Usually alleles are coding sequences, but sometimes the term is used to refer to a non-
coding sequence. An individual's genotype for that gene is the set of alleles it happens to
possess. In diploid organisms (two copies of each chromosome) including humans, two
alleles make up the individual's genotype. Alleles are represented in a Punnett square.

An example is the gene for blossom color in many species of flower—a single gene
controls the color of the petals, but there may be several different versions (or alleles) of
the gene. One version might result in red petals, while another might result in white
petals. The resulting color of an individual flower will depend on which two alleles it
possesses for the gene and how the two interact.

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on
genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic traits
to offspring. In general terms, a gene is a segment of nucleic acid that, taken as a whole,
specifies a trait. The colloquial usage of the term gene often refers to the scientific
concept of an allele.

The notion of a gene has evolved with the science of genetics, which began when Gregor
Mendel noticed that biological variations are inherited from parent organisms as specific,
discrete traits. The biological entity responsible for defining traits was termed a gene, but
the biological basis for inheritance remained unknown until DNA was identified as the
genetic material in the 1940s. All organisms have many genes corresponding to many
different biological traits, some of which are immediately visible, such as eye color or
number of limbs, and some of which are not, such as blood type or increased risk for
specific diseases, or the thousands of basic biochemical processes that comprise life.