The biological process in which characters are transferred from one generation…

Genetic characters, or traits, of a living organism can be transmitted from parents to their offspring across successive generations, through genes carried on chromosomes. This trait-transmission process underlies family resemblance and forms the basis of the Mendelian laws of inheritance.

The stem describes exactly this generation-to-generation transmission of characters. The biological process that carries out this transmission is termed heredity.

• regeneration is the regrowth of lost or damaged body parts or tissues within one organism's own body (for example, a starfish regrowing an arm); it does not involve passing traits to a new generation.

• transformation is the uptake and incorporation of external, foreign DNA by a cell, a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer seen mainly in bacteria; it is not the transmission of characters from parent to offspring.

• mutation is a change in the DNA sequence of an organism; it is a source of new genetic variation, not the general process by which existing characters are transmitted across generations.

Hence heredity is the correct term for the process described in the stem.