Genetic Advice 1

Genetic Advice

Baylee Warner

Salt Lake Community College

Author Note

First paragraph: Brief overview of genes.

Second paragraph: Phenotype versus Genotype.

Third paragraph: Explanation of Father’s and Mother’s genes mixing.

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Abstract Question.

A close friend confides in you that he thinks that one of “his” children is not his. When

presses for details he points out to you that both he and his wife have dark brown hair and that

his baby has blonde hair. In the conversation he adds that although his mother was a blonde and

his wife’s father was a blonde, that it is pretty obvious that neither he nor his wife have blonde

genes. What do you say to your friend? Use a chart or diagram to support your conclusions.
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Genetic Advice Answer

Every person has a genetic code in their DNA that accounts for how they are going to look.

In fact, for the most part, characteristics that people have require multiple sets of different types

of genes for a certain trait to show. Some of those people have stronger genes than others do. In

accordance with genes there are dominant and recessive ones. All living things have the ability to

have a complete dominant gene, a semi-dominant gene, or a total recessive gene. In the case with

hair, the brown color is the dominant gene and the blonde color is the recessive gene. If a person

has a complete dominant or homologous dominant gene then the hair color that will show will be

brown and there is no chance of passing on the recessive (blonde) gene. They cannot pass on that

blonde gene because they only have a dominant gene to give to their offspring. If they have the

semi-dominant or heterozygous gene for brown hair then that person will show brown hair but

the person still has a chance to pass along the recessive, or blonde gene, because they have that

recessive gene to pass on. If the person has a homologous recessive gene than they will have

blonde hair and will only be able to pass on the recessive gene since that is all that they have.

In the textbook ​Invitation to the Life Span​, written by Kathleen Stassen Berger, she wrote,

“When someone inherits a recessive gene that is not expressed in the phenotype, that person is

said to be a carrier of that gene: The recessive gene is carried on the genotype.” (Berger 54). As a

side note: a phenotype is the characteristic that one can physically see and a genotype is what

the genetic code actually says for what characteristic a person will have.

Since your mother and your wife’s father are blonde that means that both you and your

wife are carriers of the blonde gene. I know that you are both carriers for the blonde gene

because your mother and your wife’s father could only pass on the recessive blonde gene making
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it so you both have the heterozygous (semi-dominant) gene. Which is why you both have the

phenotype for brown hair. Thus if both you and your wife give the child the recessive gene then

your child will be blonde. So genetically speaking it is most definitely possible for you and your

wife to have a blonde child even though you and your wife do not have blonde hair yourselves.

(See chart number one to see how this exactly works the child gets one gene from its mother and

one gene from its father).

Chart Number One: Chromosomes Combinations (Berger 51).

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References

Berger, K.S. (2014). ​Invitation to The Life Span ​(2nd ed.).​. ​New York, NY: Worth Publishers, A

Macmillan Higher Education Company.