The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word HEREDITY
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
H
E
R
E
D
I
T
Y
More clues leading to the result HEREDITY
- The girl to work on newspaper with Yankee passing on features
- At this point heartless song shows genetic factor
- In Darwin’s study he tried out theory at last
- In the red, I typically find what parents pass on
- The female I’d yet to break down for DNA
- It's transmitted genetically by woman receiving correct male chromosome
- Present unusually tidy ancestry
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "what parents pass on" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case what parents pass on = heredity.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does HEREDITY mean?
HEREDITY noun- Hereditary transmission of the physical and genetic qualities of parents to their offspring; the biological law by which living beings tend to repeat their characteristics in their descendants.