Final answer:
Imprinting is different from Mendelian inheritance as it involves a learning process affecting gene expression, rather than the transmission of allelic traits. It does not follow the dominant-recessive allele patterns and is associated with epigenetic factors. In contrast, Mendelian inheritance is predictable and involves distinct dominance relationships between alleles.
Step-by-step explanation:
Imprinting in biology is distinct from other forms of genetic inheritance, as it refers to a rapid learning process that occurs at a specific stage in an animal's life, leading to a long-lasting behavioral response to a specific individual or object, often the parent. This mechanism does not follow Mendel's rules for inheritance, where traits are determined by dominant and recessive alleles, and instead is an example of epigenetic modification where environmental factors can strongly influence the expression of genes without altering the DNA sequence itself.
In contrast, Mendelian inheritance patterns are those studied by Gregor Mendel, involving traits controlled by allelic variations where one allele can be completely dominant over a recessive counterpart, resulting in predictable phenotypic expression across generations. With more complex traits, such as human height, continuous variation occurs due to the interaction of multiple genes. However, the blending theory of inheritance, which suggested that parental traits were mixed to produce an intermediate phenotype in offspring, has been disproven by modern genetics.
Furthermore, patterns of inheritance in humans, such as autosomal dominance and recessiveness, X-linked traits, incomplete dominance, codominance, and lethality, reflect the nuanced ways that alleles can express themselves. Environmental contexts can influence whether certain conditions manifest, thus affecting an individual's phenotype, as evidenced in the study of epigenetics and gene-environment interactions.