Fact
Babies are more like dads. Nature "conceived" so that the man immediately saw himself in the child and the instinct of paternity was formed faster.
For mom or dad?
The child usually inherits the color of the eyes of the parent whose eyes are darker. For example, a brown-eyed mother and a blue-eyed father, even if the baby is a father's copy, will most likely have brown eyes.
If one of the parents has curly hair, then the first child is likely to have curls too.
First child boy? Then he will probably be like his mother with the help of genes and chromosomes passed on to the child. The girl is for dad. In such cases, they say: "It will be happy."
The mind and intelligence of the baby inherits from the mother. The latter, by the way, is confirmed by science. The fact is that the genes "responsible" for IQ are located on the X chromosomes, of which a woman has two (XX), and a man has one (XY).
A girl born of a genius father has a much higher chance of being branded as a clever, intelligent woman, but on the son of a genius personality, nature is likely to "rest".
The baby will be a light-headed "mom" only if the blondes were among the father's relatives.
Bad habits are genetically encoded. Alcohol dependence is determined by the gene responsible for the synthesis of an enzyme that breaks down alcohol. If the gene is mutated, then the child of parents who love to drink, there is a tendency to alcoholism.
Inherited character
The fact that the character is inherited by means of genes and chromosomes passed on to the child has not yet been scientifically confirmed. Although the "gene of aggressiveness" discovered several years ago by scientists has already provided the basis for this kind of talk. True, practical experiments have refuted them. And yet, it was not in vain that Russian rumor advised, when choosing a wife, to look at the future mother-in-law. How many times have you said, looking at your little daughter: "Well, stubborn - all in the grandfather!" or noticed in the son: "Eh, the character is paternal." Yes, all this can be attributed to the so-called costs of education. The fact that the child unconsciously copies the behavior of the parents, noticing how they behave in a certain situation. Then he repeats the act under similar conditions. Meanwhile, scientists working on deciphering the human genetic code have already established that the tendency to polite or rude behavior is 34% inherent in us genetically. The rest is determined by upbringing and environment. And even our choice of profession is 40% due to a certain combination of chromosomes. At the very least, leadership qualities are inherited in most cases. Perhaps that is why in Russia there was a dynastic principle of the transfer of royal power - from father to son.
"Neither mother, nor father ..."
Indeed, it happens that a son or daughter is not at all like their parents. They can easily repeat the genotype of some distant relative. Or very distant. Moreover, he has long since left this world.
The father is often very worried about being different from anyone else. Tell your beloved husband that your child is like your great-great-grandmother, or - and he will calm down for a while.
And also look at the child's photos of your husband, your own and you will see: the appearance of a maturing child changes constantly and after a year or two, your crumbs may show many of your features.
Geneticist and Ph.D. Dean Heimer first announced the existence of the "homosexual gene" in 1993, and in 2004 he wrote a book about the discovery of the "gene of faith in God."
Scientists in Great Britain analyzed the character of 609 pairs of twins and it turned out that if the ability to run one's own business, sociability and introversion were characteristic of one of the brothers, then they were necessarily present in the character of the other. Even such a habit as the desire to sit in front of the TV for a long time is 45% inherited. And scientists have long been seriously arguing about the “gene of genius” and the possibility of its isolation, and even its introduction into the genotype of a particular person. In this case, the subject of the dispute is the moral component of the issue, and not at all scientific hypotheses. As Sherlock Holmes once said, looking at the portraits of the Baskervilles dynasty: "So don't believe in the transmigration of souls after that!"
If you hear in your address a statement like "You are all / all in a mother", then know that this is a deliberately false statement. In fact, we (especially women) are more like our fathers, not mothers.
In addition, there is an assumption that the father's lifestyle until the moment of conception of the child, his nutrition and well-being lay the foundations for the health of the future baby. Read about which signs are passed on to the child from the dad, and which ones from the mother, read this article.
Remember that even with good heredity, one should not forget about the correct lifestyle. It is he who ultimately determines how you look and how you feel.
Most often, children inherit from their parents the shape of the tip of the nose, the area around the lips, the size of the cheekbones, the corners of the eyes and the shape of the chin. When recognizing faces, these areas are key, so people with the same areas seem strikingly similar and even identical to us.
But the area between the eyebrows is often different between parents and their children.
Daughter Reese Witherspoon inherited from her mother blue eyes, the shape of the cheekbones, chin and tip of the nose.
Mom's genes usually make up 50% of the child's DNA, and dad's the other 50%. However, male genes are more aggressive than female genes, so they are more likely to manifest themselves. So, 40% of the active mother's genes can be 60% of the father's.
In addition, the pregnant woman's body recognizes the fetus as a semi-foreign organism. To keep a child, he has to put up with the predatory paternal genes (sometimes to the detriment of his own).
Nevertheless, you can determine which signs will be passed on to the baby from the dad, and which from the mother.
Baby gender
The gender of the unborn baby depends on the father. From the mother, the child always receives the X chromosome, and from the father either also the X chromosome (and then there will be a girl), or the Y chromosome (and then there will be a boy).Moreover, if a man has many brothers in his family, then he will have more sons, and if there are many sisters, then, accordingly, daughters. Only in some men, sperm contains an approximately equal ratio of X- and Y-chromosomes, and both boys and girls are born in them with the same probability.
The Y chromosome contains many fewer genes than the X chromosome, and some of them are responsible for the formation of male reproductive organs and the production of sperm. Therefore, the boy will mostly receive the features of his appearance from his mother and will look like her. As for girls, they will receive X chromosomes from both parents, so it will not be possible to predict their appearance in advance.
Teeth condition
If the dad is a fairly frequent visitor to dental clinics, then, most likely, the child will also often visit the dentist. Although the size and shape of the teeth, as well as the structure of the jaw, can be transmitted from either parent, it is the father's genes that are more often dominant.
Therefore, if the dad has crooked teeth, then the child will most likely have a malocclusion.
Intelligence
The genes responsible for intelligence are found on the X chromosome. Therefore, it is mothers who pass on their intelligence to their sons. Daughters receive mental abilities from both parents. However, only up to 40% of maternal intelligence is inherited, the rest of the children receive as a result of upbringing. Therefore, there is no substitute for strenuous work on yourself.
On average, boys' IQ differs from maternal IQ by no more than 15 points.
Propensity for mental illness
As men age, sperm quality deteriorates. Because of this, older people can pass on mutated genes to children. This increases the child's risk of mental illness, autism, hyperactivity, and bipolar disorder. Also, children born to fathers 45 years of age and older may be suicidal and have learning difficulties.
At any age, representatives of the stronger sex, suffering from coronary heart disease, pass on the addiction to it to their sons. And men who suffered from infertility, and therefore conception was carried out artificially, also transmit to their son a predisposition to this problem.
Propensity for hemophilia and autism
One of the most famous patients with hemophilia is Tsarevich Alexei. On the left in the photo is his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria of England, who was a carrier of the hemophilia gene and passed it on to some of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
There are diseases that are transmitted from the mother, but only appear in boys (in girls, the probability of these diseases is negligible). This happens if a woman is a carrier of an X chromosome with a defective gene and it is this chromosome that is passed on to her son. Unlike his mother, the boy has only one X chromosome, so he has nothing to compensate for the mutated gene.
Maternal-transmitted diseases include hemophilia (bleeding disorder) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (progressive muscle weakness). Autism is most pronounced when it is passed from mother to son.
Tendency to corpulence
The tendency to be overweight or, conversely, harmony is transmitted genetically. In some people, the weight and waist width are 25% due to genetics, in most cases - 40%. For people struggling with obesity, these numbers can reach 75-80%, and then getting rid of extra pounds becomes problematic. Although in this case, a reasonable diet and exercise will give results.
The tendency to thinness or obesity is transmitted in about the same way from both parents. In this case, the predisposition to harmony is transmitted to a lesser extent than the tendency to be overweight.
However, only the mother affects the weight of the baby at birth. No matter how big the father's weight is, the baby will be born slim if the woman is thin. But if the mother is obese, then the baby from birth may have a "reserve stock".
Height
The growth of the child is more influenced by fathers than mothers. In tall men, children tend to be taller at birth. In general, 60 to 80% of a child's height is determined by his father and mother, and the rest is the result of his nutrition, lifestyle and health. In addition, not all children of the same parents are of the same height: as a rule, the younger ones are shorter than the older ones.
There are 2 formulas for determining the height of an unborn child.
If you have a boy, add the height of the dad to the height of the mother and then another 13 cm. Divide the amount by 2 and you will find out how tall your son will be.
If you have a girl, then add the height of the dad to the height of the mother and subtract 13 cm. Divide the result by 2 and you will get the approximate height of your daughter.
Record the height of the girl at 18 months, and the boy at 2 years old and multiply the data by 2. This height (plus or minus 10 cm) will be your child's adulthood.
Eye color
Brown eye color is the dominant feature. Therefore, if one of the parents (especially the father) has dark eyes, and the other has blue or green eyes, then the child is likely to be brown-eyed. There is still a chance to see a light-eyed baby, but only if the parent with dark eyes has a recessive gene responsible for blue eyes.
Blue and green eye colors are recessive, but blue is more dominant than green.
At the same time, the possibility of the appearance of a brown-eyed baby in blue-eyed parents is not excluded.
Dimples
Dimples on the cheeks are the dominant feature. If at least one of the parents has them, then with a high probability they will manifest themselves in the child.
Curly hair
Curly hair is very pretty and many mothers dream that their child will have curls too. However, despite the fact that the tendency of hair to curl is a dominant sign, having it in one of the parents is not enough.
A simplified version of the scheme is as follows:
If both parents have curly hair, then the child will have curls; if mom and dad have straight hair, then the baby will have straight.
If one of the parents has curls, and the other has straight hair, then their child will have wavy hair.
At the same time, if both parents have curls, and in the family they had people with straight hair, then it may happen that the child's hair will be straight.
Bonus: how to predict what appearance a baby will have
Check out family photos of both parents. Pay attention to which features are invariably repeated in most relatives (hump nose, curly hair, dark eye color). These traits are dominant, and most likely they will manifest themselves in your unborn child.
Genetics is an unpredictable thing, but it is so interesting science to study! From the father and from the mother, the unborn child takes genes evenly, although from the father it can take much more. So, in this review, we will look at those features that are transmitted to the child and will be dominant.
1. Eye color
If the baby's dad has a dominant eye color (brown and black), then, accordingly, in 90% of cases, your newborn will have exactly his father's eye color.
2. Facial symmetry
If the baby's dad has a sharp chin or has a dimple, or, for example, a potato nose, then there is a great chance that the child will have the same facial asymmetry.
3. Dimples on the cheeks
This feature is dominant; in the child it will also be, as a rule, transmitted from the father.
4. Teeth quality
Genes are a very important factor here, in most cases, dental health is passed on from the father. But, do not be upset if the teeth are bad, modern medicine is now doing such things, as if, with a wave of a magic wand, you can correct any condition of the enamel and teeth.
5. Hair color
If the father is brunette or has auburn hair color, and the mother has recessive hair color, then the chances are high that the baby will have hair like the father.
6. Lips
Lips, their features, as a rule, are similar to those of the father.
7. Height
The boy's height will be about the same as his dad's. The girl takes the average of her father's and mother's height.
8. The level of intelligence
Intelligence, according to scientists, is a genetic predisposition and is transmitted from the father.
9. Curls on the fingers
Our fingerprints, like the earlobe, are not inherited, but some elements coincide with our father's.
10. Weight
The constitution is usually determined by the family of the father. If obese prevail in the family, then the children will be overweight.
Genetics is not only an interesting science, but also convenient. Researches of scientists have proved that a lot of us do not depend on us, but inherited. Genes, there's nothing to be done.
Dominant and recessive
It's no secret that our appearance is made up of a number of traits that are determined by heredity. You can talk about the color of the skin, hair, eyes, height, physique, and so on.
Most genes have two or more variations, called alleles. They can be dominant and recessive.
The complete dominance of one allele is extremely rare, also due to the indirect influence of other genes. Also, the appearance of the baby is affected by multiple allelism observed in a number of genes.
Therefore, scientists only talk about a higher probability of the appearance of external signs in children caused by the dominant alleles of the parents, but nothing more.
For example, dark hair color is dominant over light hair. If both parents have black or light brown hair, then the child will have dark hair.
Exceptions are possible in rare cases if there were, for example, blondes in the family from both parents. If both parents have blond hair, then the likelihood that the baby will be a brunette increases. Curly hair is more likely to be inherited because it is dominant. As for eye color, dark colors are also strong: black, brown, dark green.
Features such as dimples on the cheeks or chin dominate. In a union where at least one partner has dimples, they are likely to be passed on to the younger generation. Almost all of the prominent features of appearance are strong. It can be a large, long nose or a hump on it, protruding ears, thick eyebrows, puffy lips.
Will the girl be obedient?
Whether the daughter will become a neat girl who loves dolls, or will grow up like a boy, playing "Cossack robbers" is largely determined by the maternal instinct, which, as it turned out, depends on two genes.
Research conducted by the Human Genom Organization (HUGO) shocked the scientific community when it presented evidence that the maternity instinct is transmitted exclusively through the male line. That is why scientists argue that girls are more likely to resemble paternal grandmothers than their own mothers in terms of behavior.
Inherited aggressiveness
In the Human Genome project, the Russian scientists were tasked with determining whether aggressiveness, irritability, activity and sociability are genetically inherited traits, or are formed in the process of education. We studied the behavior of twin children aged from 7 to 12 months and their genetic relationship with the type of parental behavior.
It turned out that the first three traits of temperament are hereditary, but sociability is formed by 90% in the social environment. For example, if one of the parents is prone to aggression, then with a probability of 94% this will happen again in the baby.
Alpine genes
Genetics can explain not only external signs, but even the national characteristics of different peoples. So, in the genome of Sherpas there is an allele of the EPAS1 gene, which increases the presence of hemoglobin in the blood, which explains their adaptability to life in high mountain conditions. No other people have this adaptation, but exactly the same allele is found in the genome of the Denisovans - people who do not belong either to Neanderthals or to the species Homo Sapiens. Probably, many millennia ago, Denisovans interbred with the common ancestors of the Chinese and Sherpas. Subsequently, the Chinese living on the plains lost this allele as unnecessary, while the Sherpas retained it.
Genes, sulfur and sweat
Genes are even responsible for how much a person sweats and what kind of earwax he has. There are two versions of the ABCC11 gene that are common in the human population. Those of us who own at least one of two copies of the dominant version of the gene produce liquid earwax, while those with two copies of the recessive version of the gene have hard earwax. Also, the ABCC11 gene is responsible for the production of proteins that remove sweat from the pores in the armpits. People with hard earwax do not produce such sweat, so they have no problems with smell and the need to constantly use deodorant.
Sleep gene
The average person sleeps 7-8 hours a day, but if there is a mutation in the hDEC2 gene that regulates the sleep-wake cycle, the need for sleep can be reduced to 4 hours. Carriers of this mutation often achieve more in life and career due to the extra time.
Speech gene
The FOXP2 gene plays an important role in the formation of the speech apparatus in humans. When this was found out, geneticists conducted an experiment to introduce the FOXP2 gene in chimpanzees, in the hope that the monkey would speak. But nothing of the kind happened - the zone responsible for the functions of speech in humans, in chimpanzees, regulates the vestibular apparatus. The ability to climb trees in the course of evolution for the monkey turned out to be much more important than the development of verbal communication skills.
Happiness gene
For the past decade, genetics has been struggling to prove that a happy life requires the appropriate genes, or rather, the so-called 5-HTTLPR gene, which is responsible for the transport of serotonin (the "happiness hormone").
In the past century, this theory would have been considered insane, but today, when the genes responsible for baldness, longevity or falling in love have already been discovered, nothing seems impossible.
To prove their hypothesis, scientists at the London School of Medicine and the School of Economics interviewed several thousand people. As a result, volunteers who had two copies of the gene for happiness from both parents turned out to be optimists and not prone to any depression. The study was published by Jan-Emmanuel de Neve in the Journal of Human Genetics. At the same time, the scientist emphasized that other "happy genes" could soon be found.
Nevertheless, if you, for some reason, have a bad mood for a long time, you should not rely too much on your body and blame Mother Nature for “cheating you with happiness”. Scientists say that human happiness depends on many factors: "If you are unlucky, you lost your job or separated from loved ones, then this will be a much stronger source of unhappiness, no matter how many genes you have," said de Neve ...
Genes and diseases
Genes also influence which diseases a person may be prone to. In total, about 3500 have been described to date, and for half of them a specific culprit gene has been identified, its structure, types of disorders and mutations are known.
Longevity
The longevity gene was discovered by scientists at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts back in 2001. The longevity gene is actually a sequence of 10 genes that can hold the secret to long life.
During the implementation of the project, the genes of 137 100-year-old people, their brothers and sisters, aged 91 to 109, were studied. All subjects found "chromosome 4", and scientists believe that it contains up to 10 genes that affect health and life expectancy.
These genes, as scientists believe, allow their carriers to successfully fight cancer, heart disease and dementia, and some other diseases.
Shape type
Genes are also responsible for body type. So, the tendency to obesity often occurs in people with a defect in the FTO gene. This gene disrupts the balance of the "hunger hormone" ghrelin, which leads to impaired appetite and an innate desire to eat more than necessary. Understanding this process gives hope for the creation of a drug that reduces the concentration of ghrelin in the body.
Eye color
Traditionally, it is believed that eye color is determined by heredity. A mutation in the OCA2 gene is responsible for light eyes. The EYCL1 gene of chromosome 19 is responsible for blue or green color; for brown - EYCL2; for brown or blue - EYCL3 chromosome 15. In addition, the genes OCA2, SLC24A4, TYR are associated with eye color.
Even at the end of the 19th century, there was a hypothesis that human ancestors had extremely dark eyes. Hans Eiberg, a modern Danish scientist at the University of Copenhagen, has done scientific research to support and develop this idea. According to the results of research, the OCA2 gene, which is responsible for light shades of the eyes, whose mutations disable the standard color, appeared only during the Mesolithic period (10,000-6,000 BC). Hans has been collecting evidence since 1996 and concluded that OCA2 regulates the production of melanin in the body, and any changes in the gene reduce this ability and disrupt its functioning, making the eyes blue.
The professor also claims that all blue-eyed inhabitants of the Earth have common ancestors, because this gene is inherited. However, different forms of the same gene, alleles, are always in a state of competition, and the darker color always "wins", as a result of which parents with blue and brown eyes will have brown-eyed children, and only a blue-eyed couple can have a baby with eyes of cold shades.
Blood type
The blood group of a future baby is the most predictable of all hereditary traits. It's pretty simple. Knowing the blood group of the parents, we can say what it will be in the child. So, if both partners have 1 blood group, then their baby will have the same. With the interaction of 1 and 2, 2 and 2 blood groups, children can inherit one of these two options. Absolutely any blood group is possible in a child whose parents are of groups 2 and 3.
Text: Evgeniya Keda, consultant - Alexander Kim, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Emeritus of Moscow State University
Once, the famous English writer Bernard Shaw was approached with an unusual request - a fan urged him ... to make her a child. "Just imagine, the baby will be as beautiful as me and as smart as you!" she dreamed. "Madam," Shaw sighed, "what if it turns out the other way around?"
Of course, this is a historical anecdote. But surely modern science can predict with high probability what exactly is inherited from parents, what a son or daughter will inherit - the ability for mathematics or for music.
What is inherited: the role of chromosomes
From the school curriculum in biology, we remember for sure that the gender of a child is determined by a man. If an egg cell is fertilized by a sperm carrying an X chromosome, a girl is born, if the Y chromosome is a boy.
It has been proven that the X chromosomes carry genes that are more responsible for appearance: the shape of the eyebrows, the shape of the face, the color of the skin and hair. Therefore, it is logical to assume that boys with one such chromosome are more likely to inherit the appearance of their mother. But the girls who received it from both parents may be equally like both the mother and the father.
Expert comment: “In fact, the X chromosome that boys receive is just one of 46 in the genetic code. And all 46 chromosomes have genes that are responsible for a variety of traits. Thus, boys do not necessarily look like their mother. "
! Most likely to be transmittedby inheritance: height, weight, fingerprints, predisposition to depression.
! With a low probability of being transmittedby inheritance: shyness, temperament, memory, food addictions.
What is inherited: the strong wins?
In the same textbook it is clearly written: genes are divided into dominant (strong) and recessive (weak). And each person equally has both.
For example, the brown-eyed gene is dominant and the light-eyed gene is recessive. Brown-eyed parents are more likely to have the same dark-eyed baby. However, one should not think that the appearance of a blue-eyed descendant in such a family is completely excluded. Both mom and dad can carry the recessive gene for light-eyed and pass it on at the moment of conception. Chances, of course, are few, but they are. Moreover, not one gene, but a whole group is responsible for each trait on the part of the parent, and the combinations here are multivariate.
Strong, most often inherited genes include dark and curly hair, large facial features, a massive chin, a crooked nose, and short fingering. For two blondes, the toddler is likely to be blond. But the brunette and the blond have dark blond (the average color between mom and dad). Sometimes, quite unexpectedly, the child inherits the traits of distant relatives. There is nothing surprising in this, probably, in previous generations, these genes lost in an unequal struggle, but here they turned out to be dominant and won.
Does the baby look nothing like you at all? Take a closer look. Perhaps he has your facial expressions: he also wrinkles his forehead when he thinks, sticks out his lip when offended. Tell me, is he copying you? Yes and no. It has been noticed that blind children, who have never seen their relatives, nevertheless quite accurately repeat their gestures and facial expressions.
Probably many have noticed that the first child of the same parents is a spitting image of dad, the second is unusually similar to mom, and the third is a copy of grandfather. In this case, we are talking about gene splitting. The environment and family are the same, but the combinations of genes obtained by siblings are completely different.
Expert comment: “The parents themselves are unlikely to be able to calculate what will be inherited by the child. It is not at all necessary that the dark-haired mom and dad will have the same dark-haired child, and the fair-haired ones will have a fair-haired one. In this case, the genealogy of a person, the history of ancestors on both sides, has a great influence. A geneticist will help to figure it out, but he will also have to delve deeply into the family tree. "
What is inherited: the child's appearance
Growth is also difficult to predict. If the parents are very tall, the baby, most likely, will also grow from the Kolomna verst. Dad is big and mom is petite? The child will probably stop at the average. However, proper baby nutrition, adequate sleep for the child, active sports, and even the climate have a great influence.