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by petal_019 on April 27th, 2005

petal_019

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If one parent is prematurely gray, is it possible for only one child in the family to get the premature gray gene?

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  • by notmrjohn on April 28th, 2005

    notmrjohn

    Yup, or for all, some or none. Scientists working on cancer may have discovered that premature gray hair is due to a mutated or damaged gene. "A gene called Bcl 2 is essential to maintain melanocytes,the cells that help color hair and skin. The researchers found that when they raised mice lacking this gene the animals went gray quickly and dramatically shortly after birth." Which and how many offspring have the gene depends on which parent donated that gene, and where that parent got it, which chromosome the gene is on and whether the gene is for a dominant or recessive hair color. You might recall that females have two X chromosomes and males have a Y and an X in their cells. On those chromosomes are the genes for hair color, keeping it simple, there is a dominant gene for dark hair D and a recessive one for light hair d. There is one gene on each chromosome. Let's just say;

    Mom Dad

    XX XY

    Dd dD

    Both have dark hair. D over rides d. (There are other combos, of course)

    Mom's XX cell splits into two eggs with one X each, Dads XY cells splits into two sperm ,one with X 'tother with Y. The egg and sperm combine to create,

    XDXd(dark hair),XDYD(dark, XdYD(dark), or XdXd(light)

    If the mutated gene is Mom's D, there are two ways it can be passed, if her d only one,( Dad's D trumps Mom's d in XdYD), if it's Dad's mutated D there are two ways ( in XDYD, either D may take over), Dad's little d only has one chance ( in XdYd, again either d wins) If the mutation is on a little d there's a 12.5% chance of passing it on. ( I think,I take my shoes off to count past 10, 10 toes on two feet ten fingers on two hands, and two thumbs, my big toe is twicet the size of the pinkie, one hand(non equine) =4", 2hands times 2feet= 5.3 cubits, carry the knee awww...)



    Anyway, yes only one child can get the premature burial, uh, gene, I was thinkin' about one of my kids, the one that is making me gray.

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