Levodopa has a relatively short half-life and interruption of administration of the drug can result in abrupt loss of therapeutic effect within 6 to 12 hours resulting in skeletal muscle rigidity which can interfere with ventilation. Therefore, it is recommended that levodopa be continued as prescribed. Hines RL, Marschall KE. Stoeltings Anesthesia & Co-Existing Diseases. 7th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier-Saunders; 2018: : 293-295

All humans and most life on earth are created from a genetic code in the form of deoxyribonucleic acid, more commonly known as DNA. In eukaryotes, DNA is located in the nucleus of a cell and the mitochondria.

Adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine are the four chemical bases that form the foundation of all DNA. The thread-like structures that hold the DNA are called chromosomes.

Offspring Meaning in Biology

In biology, an offspring is the child of two organisms. Offspring contain characteristics of both parental organisms.

Plants, animals, fungi and bacteria reproduce in different ways to produce multiple offspring.

Human Heredity Basics

Humans reproduce sexually, meaning that each child is the combination both the mother and father's DNA. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. For example, there are two forms of the sex chromosome in humans, X and Y. Males have an X and a Y chromosome while females have XX.

The father stores a single set of his chromosomes in each sperm, some will have the X chromosome and some will have the Y. The mother has a single set of her chromosomes in each of her eggs and as women have two X chromosomes, all her eggs will have the X chromosome. Since the sperm and egg sex cells only contain one set of chromosomes, they are called haploid sex cells.