What roles do genes play in life?

Genes play a very essential role in one's life, for they hold information about everything - how tall you are, how you look, how your hair is, everything. It isn't as simple as it sounds, though. Although genes contain all the information required for sustaining life, these alone can't determine all the things I mentioned before. Genes are regulated by a number of factors, the most important being the environment. So even if your genes would have permitted you to grow taller than you are now, you wouldn't reach that height if you didn't get the kind of food that would have made you that tall when you were growing up, or if any other environmental factor limited how all that nutrition was utilised inside of your body. This is just an arbitrary example. Genes and the environment share very complex dynamics. Also, genes are not indestructible. Though they show a very high degree of conservation, genes often get mutated and lose their function and lead to a variety of disorders arising from their malfunctioning.

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