Will her daughter get her father's rare hair? To get answers to these questions, you can go to the soothsayer Baba Inga or look closely at coffee grounds. However, instead of engaging in shamanism, it’s better to remember your school biology course.
While you were exchanging notes with best friend or counting crows while looking out the window, the teacher patiently explained to you and your classmates what happens when the female and male reproductive cells unite. In the process of merging, the light appears new life, which receives part of the paternal and maternal genes, which carry a huge amount of information: they are responsible for appearance, health, mental capacity future child. Despite the fact that the baby receives all the signs from his mother and father, he is born as a completely unique personality, whose exact portrait cannot be drawn by any scientist in the world: no one knows for sure exactly how the genes are intertwined in a bizarre way. However, there are a number of features that can be predicted with a certain degree of probability: for example, what the child’s eye color, hair shade, height, etc. will be.
Exact copy?
You've probably heard the popular belief more than once that girls are born like their dads, and boys, on the contrary, become copies of their mothers. This theory is only partly true: it is believed that the genes responsible for the shape of the face, the shape of the cheekbones and eyebrows, the smile, etc., mostly live on the X chromosome. At the same time, boys get it from their mother, and from their father they get the Y sex chromosome, which is quite poor external signs. Therefore, toddlers actually more often turn out to be “mama’s boys.” As for girls, they inherit two X chromosomes from both parents at the same time. So it’s impossible to say who the little princess will look like: she has an equal chance of getting both her mother’s and father’s faces.
Pansies
In moments of greatest tenderness, your husband enthusiastically whispers in your ear: “Our daughter will have your eyes as blue as the spring sky.” If at the same time your spouse has brown eyes, you will have to upset him: the likelihood of having a light-eyed baby is negligible. The fact is that genes can be recessive or dominant. IN in this case dark color irises are strong, and blue, like gray and green, is weak, which gives in under the powerful pressure of the first. Your chances of producing a blue-eyed girl are 25%, and a black-eyed beauty is 75%. But if your husband, like you, has a blue iris, you will never have a child with dark eyes. But two brown-eyed parents can expect a surprise: there is a 25% chance that the baby will surprise mom and dad with something unexpected blue eye.
Curly Sue
Blonde hair color, like blue eyes, is considered a recessive trait. That is why some publications periodically publish articles on the topic that someday there will not be a single blonde left on planet Earth: they will be swallowed up by stronger brunettes. However, the World Health Organization never tires of refuting this dubious information: recessive genes do not disappear without a trace, but are passed on from generation to generation in order to someday appear again. However, this does not mean at all that your children will get your wheat hair color; it is quite possible that it will appear in your grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Here, as in the case of eyes: a pair of “blonde plus brunette” has only one chance in four of giving birth to Goldilocks. The same applies to saffron milk caps: chestnut curls, alas, are recessive. But if you are the happy owner of a lush, curly head of hair, with a high degree of probability you will get a baby whose head will be decorated with charming curls. Because curly hair is dominant, and straight hair is recessive.
Dimples and humps
On your first date with your husband, you were immediately smitten by his noble Roman profile - his hooked nose - and the sexy dimple on his chin. Keep in mind, your future son has every chance of becoming a sultry heartthrob: some scientists are confident that the genes responsible for these traits are dominant. Unfortunately, these same experts also consider protruding ears to be a very strong trait that is inherited. So, if someone in your family boasts funny ears, the child will receive them as a dowry.
Gulliver and Thumbelina
Some men are crazy about girls of model size with a height of at least 175 cm, others prefer miniature Thumbelina. Ladies, unfortunately, are more categorical: in modern society Tall macho men are valued (short Tom Cruise is an exception to the rule; after all, his too pretty face compensates for his short stature). Therefore, most likely, you dream of a giant son, whose charms no beauty can resist. Alas, predicting the growth of a future baby is a very difficult task. After all, it is influenced not only by the parameters of the parents, but also by lifestyle, nutrition, and past illnesses. However, there is a huge chance that a tall mom and dad will have children to match them. However, parents with modest dimensions and the presence of tall grandparents can count on the fact that the child will outgrow them.
By the way, if you have free time and you are ready to do simple calculations, you can try to calculate the height of your future child using special formulas. A certain Czech researcher V. Karkus is confident that a girl’s height should be calculated according to the following scheme: multiply the father’s parameters by 0.923, add the mother’s height and divide by 2. For the boy’s dimensions, you will need a different formula: add up the heights of mom and dad, multiply by 1.08 , divide by 2. For example, if your partner is 185 cm and you are 170 cm, then, according to the Karkus formulas, your son will reach approximately 192 cm, and your daughter will be your height.
Mind for mind
You graduated from school with a gold medal, from college with honors, and your husband was saved from the army solely by his family’s personal acquaintance with the rector of the university. Fortunately, your children most likely will not follow the path of their slob father. According to the latest research, intellectual abilities are transmitted to a greater extent from the mother, rather than from the father. However, a brilliant man can also reward his offspring with a remarkable mind, but only if he gives birth to a girl and provides her with his X chromosome. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the game that the boy will receive.
Children to order
Who will be born to you, a boy or a girl, depends on which cell of the father's merged with the mother's to give rise to a new life. One half of the father's gametes contains the X chromosome, the other - the Y chromosome. The fusion of the first with the mother's egg leads to the birth of a little princess, the second - a tomboy. However, this information became known to people relatively recently. Our ancestors were sure that other factors influence the gender of the child.
China: head north. The ancient Chinese believed that in order for an heir to be born, a woman had to lay her head to the north while making love, and to conceive a girl, to the south.
Germany: rain is for girls. German great-great-grandmothers were sure that if you make love during the rain, a girl will certainly be born, and dry weather contributes to the appearance of male representatives.
Greece: love in the heat. The ancient Greek philosopher and physician Empedocles believed that in hot weather there is a much greater chance of conceiving a male baby, and in the cold season, respectively, a female baby.
Tibet: even-odd. In Tibet there was a belief: if parents dream of an heir, they must conceive him on an even day. Those who dream of a girl should postpone their lovemaking to an odd day.
People of the future
Ever since people discovered the science called “genetics,” they have been haunted by the thought of what a person of the future will look like. Researchers are divided into two camps: adherents of the first are sure that we will be reborn into gigantic beauties, representatives of the second are predicting an ugly future for us.
Dark handsome men. Medicine will become more and more improved, which means that human life expectancy will increase to 120 years. Wherein early aging it won’t: even at 80 we will look forty. Compared to previous centuries, we have already grown significantly; this trend will continue, and the person of the future will eventually begin to look at the world from a two-meter height. Races will disappear: all earthlings will become dark-skinned and very beautiful. Facial features will be more symmetrical, bodies will be more athletic, eyes will be larger and clearer.
Three-fingered goblins. The habit of chewing increasingly lighter foods will make a person’s face childishly round, and his teeth – sparse and small. During the process of mutation (in several thousand years, people have already lost three-quarters of their sense of smell), our nose will fall off, leaving two small holes. To make it more convenient to press the keys, your fingers will become long and thin. Over time, there will be three of them on each hand. The need to accommodate a huge amount of information will cause the brain to grow to incredible sizes, causing a person's head to become large and round. Under the influence of environmental factors, height will decrease by almost half a meter, muscle mass will decrease, hair will disappear from our bodies, and the skin will become rough. The abundance of dirt and dust floating in the air will make a person’s eyes slanted and provide them with a protective dark film.
Stars about genes
Olga Budina:
– There are children who become copies of their parents. I can’t say the same about my son: he’s as different from me as two peas in a pod. However, one cannot help but notice some of my traits, which were repeated in Nahum with amazing accuracy.
Firstly, he has my facial expressions: he smiles, speaks, frowns, laughs absolutely like my mother. Secondly, my son is amazingly musical. Thirdly, at only five years old he is already a perfectionist and very ambitious.
Valeria:
– Everyone in my family is musicians. Grandparents, although they were not professional artists, played the piano. My children have inherited this trait: they have an inclination for music, but I don’t see any desire for it in them. Although the eldest son studied piano and clarinet, the daughter plays the piano, the youngest went to music school at the age of four. The teachers called him gifted and said that he was “their” child and needed to be developed.
Scientists believe that intellectual abilities are determined by 50–70% by genes, and the choice of profession by 40%. We have a 34% tendency toward politeness and rude behavior. Even the desire to sit for a long time in front of the TV is 45% a genetic predisposition. The rest, according to experts, is determined by upbringing, social environment and sudden blows of fate - for example, illness.
A gene, just like an individual organism, is subject to the action of natural selection. If, for example, it allows a person to survive in harsher climatic conditions or withstand physical stress longer, it will spread. If, on the contrary, it ensures the appearance of some harmful trait, then the prevalence of such a gene in the population will fall.
During intrauterine development child, this influence of natural selection on individual genes can manifest itself in a rather strange way. For example, genes inherited from the father are “interested” in the rapid growth of the fetus - since the father’s body obviously does not lose from this, and the child grows faster. Maternal genes, on the other hand, promote slower development - which ultimately takes longer, but leaves the mother more strength.
Prader-Willi syndrome is an example of what happens when the mother's genes “victory”. During pregnancy, the fetus is inactive; After birth, the child experiences developmental delay, a tendency toward obesity, short stature, drowsiness, and impaired coordination of movements. It may seem strange that these apparently unfavorable traits are encoded by maternal genes - but it must be remembered that normally these same genes compete with paternal genes.
In turn, the “victory” of paternal genes leads to the development of another disease: Angelman syndrome. In this case, the child develops hyperactivity, often epilepsy and delay speech development. Sometimes the patient’s vocabulary is limited to just a few words, and even in this case the child understands most of what is said to him - it is the ability to express his thoughts that suffers.
Of course, it’s impossible to predict a child’s appearance. But we can say with a certain degree of confidence what the main features will be. Dominant (strong) and recessive (weak) genes will help us with this.
For each of its external and internal characteristics, the child receives two genes. These genes may coincide (tall height, plump lips) or different (tall and short, plump and thin). If the genes match, there will be no contradictions, and the child will inherit plump lips and tall height. In another case, the strongest gene wins.
A strong gene is called dominant, and a weak gene is called recessive. Strong genes in humans include dark and curly hair; baldness in men; brown, or green eyes; normally pigmented skin. Recessive traits include blue eyes, straight, blond or red hair, and lack of skin pigment.
When a strong and a weak gene meet, as a rule, the stronger one wins. For example, mom is a brown-eyed brunette, and dad is blond with blue eyes, with a high degree of probability we can say that the baby will be born with dark hair and brown eyes.
True, brown-eyed parents may give birth to a newborn with blue eyes. Thus, genes received from a grandmother or grandfather could have an effect. The opposite situation is also possible. The explanation is that it turns out that for any trait we have, it is not just one gene from each parent, as was previously thought, that is responsible, but a whole group of genes. And sometimes one gene is responsible for several functions at once. So a whole series of genes are responsible for eye color, which are combined differently each time.
Hereditary diseases transmitted by genes
A baby can inherit from his parents not only appearance and character traits, but also diseases (cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases).
The disease may not appear if basic safety measures are taken. Tell your gynecologist in detail about serious health problems not only for you and your husband, but also for your close relatives. This will help protect the baby in the future. Sometimes absolutely healthy parents give birth to a baby with a hereditary disease. It was embedded in the genes and appeared only in the child. This usually happens when both parents have the same disease in their genes. Therefore, if you are planning a child, according to experts, it is better to undergo a genetic examination. This is especially true for families in which children with hereditary diseases have already been born.
A weak gene may not be detected for one or many generations until two recessive genes from each parent occur. And then, for example, such a rare symptom as albinism may appear.
Chromosomes are also responsible for the sex of the child. For a woman, the chances of giving birth to a girl or a boy are equal. The gender of the child depends only on the father. If an egg meets a sperm with sex chromosome X, it will be a girl. If U, a boy will be born.
What else may depend on genes:
Gender – 100%;
Height – 80% (for men) and 70% (for women);
Blood pressure – 45%;
Snoring – 42%;
Female infidelity – 41%;
Spirituality – 40%;
Religiosity – 10%.
There are also genes responsible for the development of certain conditions, such as depression or a tendency to uncontrollable eating.
The level of mutations in men is 2 times higher than that in women. Thus, it turns out that humanity owes its progress to men.
All representatives of the human race are 99.9% identical in DNA, which completely rejects any basis for racism.
Incredible facts
Parents like to imagine what their future child will look like.
Will he inherit mom's eyes or dad's nose? Are there certain traits that we get from each parent?
Genetics is an interesting and very complex thing. A child receives 23 chromosomes from his mother and 23 from his father, and there are many options for how they will combine and what the end result will be.
Although the genetic influence is generally equal on the part of both parents, many scientists conclude that father sometimes has more influence than mother.
1. Eye color
Dark eye colors such as brown and black are dominant, while light color an eye, for example, blue, is recessive.
Typically, a child inherits the dominant eye color of his parents. For example, if at dad's Brown eyes, and the mother has blue eyes, then the child will most likely be brown-eyed.
But this doesn't always happen. If the father has a recessive eye color, such as blue or green, the child is more likely to inherit the father's eye color.
2. Dimples
There's nothing cuter than dimples, and if your father had dimples, chances are your baby will be born with the same cute dimples.
Dimples are a dominant feature, and their appearance is associated with the location of the muscles on the face.
3. Fingerprint pattern
Each person has their own unique fingerprints, and they are not repeated in parents and children. However, there is a genetic predisposition to fingerprints.
The fingerprints of fathers and children, although never the same, are very similar. Look at the hands of a child and you will see father has similar curls or arcs.
4. Facial symmetry
Genetics plays a big role in what facial features, or the ratio of those features, your children will develop.
Children tend to inherit the symmetry of their father's face, and if, looking at your son or daughter, you clearly see his father, then there is a reason for this.
5. Child's growth
The growth of a child is influenced by the genes of both parents, however the father plays a big role in how tall or short the child will be. If the father is tall, then the children will also be tall, maybe not as tall as the father, if the mother short, but nonetheless.
6. Baby's weight
Weight is largely determined by genetics, and there is a connection between the weight of parents, especially the father, and the weight of children as they grow up.
I wonder what Father's weight may influence baby's birth weight. So, if the father's genes are expressed during pregnancy and intrauterine development of the child, then the mother's genes may be suppressed to some extent.
7. Hair
As with eyes, dominant and recessive genes have a big impact on hair color.
Dark hair is dominant, and if your father dark hair, then yours will most likely be dark too.
Moreover, the father's genes play a decisive role in whether what will the baby's hair texture be like?. If the father curly hair, it is unlikely that the child will have straight hair.
8. Lips
When it comes to lip shape and size, the father's genes can significantly influence this trait. Full lips are a dominant feature, and if the father has full lips, then the child will most likely have full lips too.
9. Dental problems
Unfortunately or fortunately, the structure of teeth, as well as the problems associated with them, is a hereditary trait. If the father had bad teeth, then the child will probably also have to face problems.
Did you know that there is gene responsible for the appearance of gaps between teeth? If your father had a gap in his teeth, don't be surprised if you inherit one.
10. Risk appetite
If a father likes to take risks, then this can leave an imprint on the personality of future children. It is believed that a person's personality is to some extent predetermined from birth.
So, for example, there is a gene responsible for the search for novelty and inclining a person to risky behavior. A person who is prone to adventure most likely inherited this trait from his father.
11. Sense of humor
Although there is no specific gene responsible for a sense of humor, there is a number of genes that determine the tendency to be witty.
Of course, a sense of humor is a social trait, and if parents like to make fun of each other and laugh, then the child will be funny too.
12. Intelligence
The child's intelligence potential is also determined to a greater extent by genetics, namely the father's intelligence.
Text: Evgenia Keda, consultant - Alexander Kim, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Honored Professor of Moscow State University
One day, the famous English writer Bernard Shaw was approached with an unusual request - a fan convinced 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 certainly modern science can predict with high probability what exactly is inherited from parents, what a son or daughter will inherit - the ability to do mathematics or music.
What is inherited: the role of chromosomes
From school curriculum In biology, we definitely remember that the sex of a child is determined by a man. If the egg is fertilized by a sperm carrying the X chromosome, a girl is born, if the Y chromosome is fertilized, a boy is born.
It has been proven that X chromosomes carry genes that are largely responsible for appearance: the shape of the eyebrows, the shape of the face, skin and hair color. Therefore, it is logical to assume that boys who have one such chromosome are more likely to inherit their mother’s appearance. But girls who received it from both parents may be equally similar to both their mother and their father.
Expert comment: “In fact, the X chromosome that boys receive is only one of 46 in the genetic code. And on all 46 chromosomes there are genes responsible for a variety of traits. Thus, the boys do not necessarily turn out to look like their mother.”
! Most likely to be transmittedby inheritance: height, weight, fingerprints, predisposition to depression.
! Less likely to be transmittedby inheritance: shyness, temperament, memory, eating habits.
What is inherited: does the strong win?
The same textbook clearly states: genes are divided into dominant (strong) and recessive (weak). And every person has both equally.
For example, the gene for brown eyes is dominant and the gene for light eyes is recessive. Brown-eyed parents with more likely the same dark-eyed child will be born. 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-eyedness and pass it on at the time of conception. The chances are, of course, small, but they are there. Moreover, not one gene, but a whole group, is responsible for each trait on the parent’s side, and the combinations here are multivariate.
Strong, most often inherited genes include dark and curly hair, large facial features, a massive chin, a hump nose, and short fingers. Two blonds will most likely have a blond toddler. But the brunette and the blond have dark blond (the middle color between mom and dad). Sometimes, quite unexpectedly, a child inherits traits from 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 your baby look anything like you? Take a closer look. Perhaps he has your facial expressions: he also wrinkles his forehead when he thinks, sticks out his lip when he is 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 the spitting image of his father, the second is unusually similar to his mother, and the third is a copy of his grandfather. In this case we are talking about gene splitting. The environment and family are the same, but the combinations of genes received by siblings are completely different.
Expert comment:“Parents themselves are unlikely to be able to figure out what will be inherited by their child. It is not at all necessary that a dark-haired mother and father will have the same dark-haired child, and a fair-haired one will have a fair-haired one. In this case, a person’s pedigree, the history of ancestors on both sides, has a great influence. A geneticist will help you figure it out, but he will also have to seriously delve into the family tree.”
What is inherited: the child’s appearance
Growth is also quite difficult to predict. If the parents are very tall, the baby will most likely also reach a mile and a half. Dad is big and mom is petite? The child will probably stop at the average. However, proper baby nutrition, sufficient sleep for the child, active sports, and even climate have a great influence.
The first ideas about how the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule ensures the transmission of hereditary information and the subsequent transformation of a fertilized egg into a human personality are received, as a rule, by modern Homo sapiens in “ school years wonderful." And, as a rule, for most of us this first “theoretical minimum” often turns out to be the last - because upon reaching puberty and other maturity necessary for the formation of a family, we prefer to immediately move on to the “workshop” of passing on our genes to our descendants. This is quite logical from a biological point of view - after all, we live on this planet thanks to the diligence with which our ancestors, who were unaware of the existence of replicons 2, operons 3 and codons 4, “practised” in the above-mentioned gene transfer
But still... Still, it would do well for today’s potential parents to know a little more about heredity - and not at all out of “pure love of art.” Our time, quite rightly called the “dawn of the biotechnological era,” implies more high level“genetic competence” of future parents, rather than what remains in memory ten years after leaving school.
The recent history of consumerization 5 of human society shows that the possibilities of bioethics 6 to restrain commercial proposals generated by the development of biotechnologies are not limitless - an example of this is the notorious “stem cell boom” 7 that has swept some countries. In a global hypermarket environment. where human genes can easily become a hot commodity, you should not rely entirely on the authorities that protect “consumer rights” - the most reliable guarantor against bankruptcy (of any kind) is, of course, the competence of the consumer himself.
Celebration of genes. The program includes an extravaganza...
If Man is the Crown of Creation (albeit self-proclaimed), then his genome 8 can safely be called... Creation itself. Because it is the constant creation of life that is occupied by this grandiose Program, in the four-letter language of which 30,000 “articles” of genes are “written”, housed in 46 “volumes” of chromosomes. This “encyclopedia” truly contains everything you need to build a new human organism and maintain it in a state of life for many decades. It is genes that determine a huge range of individual characteristics of a person - from eye color and physique to ear for music and life expectancy. The genome contains everything to endow a human being with intelligence - a phenomenon whose material “subtlety” is too elegant even for the molecular level at which geneticists are trying to study this phenomenon.
Our genes perform all these miracles listed above both “individually” and by cooperating in all sorts of combinations and ensembles - they do it by regulating the production of thousands of varieties of proteins that “know how” to build cells, set clear tasks for them, transfer information, catalyze (accelerate) biochemical reactions , “repair” the genome itself - if an “accident” suddenly happens to it... The main conditions for the success of this truly enchanting protein (protein) blockbuster directed and produced by the genome, which begins even before the moment of conception of a human being and lasts until his last breath, in in general, they are simple: everything must be done on time, in the right places and in sufficient quantities. Violation of these conditions is fraught with obvious consequences (the appearance of fetal malformations). Things like this... Now you can breathe out and move on.
Not just peas...
I am interested in the so-called transmissible genetics - a science that studies the patterns of transmission of hereditary information from ancestors to descendants. Although peas
fully deserves to become the emblem of the above-mentioned branch of genetics - deserves “with light hand"The great Gregor Mendel, the first transmissible geneticist in human history, who studied the laws of heredity thanks to this simple plant. The types of inheritance of characters discovered by these scientists are still respectfully called Mendelian (or Mendelian). And that same similarity between parents and children, the pattern of which was somewhat pathetically called into question in the previous paragraph, is largely ensured precisely by Mendelian (or very similar to it) inheritance.
Among the thousands of characteristics of a human individual (so-called phenotypic traits), there are quite a few that are encoded by a single gene or group of genes that are closely “linked” to each other. Or a group of genes, among which there is a clear “leader” - i.e. a gene whose “contribution” to the formation of a trait is much greater than the contributions of its “colleagues” in the gene ensemble. In such cases, the “good old” types of inheritance are quite relevant - such as autosomal dominant and autosomal recessive 9.
According to a similar scheme, eye color is inherited, for example - if a child receives from at least one of the parents a gene combination encoding the dominant (i.e. “strong”) brown color of the iris, then his eyes will certainly be brown. In order for a child to be blue-eyed, he must receive from both parents a weak (recessive) “gene” for blue iris color. And even if both of his parents are brown eyes, this does not “cancel” the validity of the Mendelian distribution of the trait. All you need to do is take a short walk around family tree baby - and the very first blue-eyed direct ancestors encountered in him. The child's paternal and maternal lines will be the people whose iris color gene was inherited.
The so-called are inherited in a similar way. “blood groups”, individual facial features, hair color, the ability to distinguish certain colors and shades, a tendency to eat sweet foods and panic reactions, the ability to write words in their mirror image... And, unfortunately, they are passed on from ancestors to descendants of several thousand hereditary diseases of varying severity. Crossing over and mutagenesis with such inheritance are not particularly effective - the probability of the manifestation or non-manifestation of traits in these cases is significantly influenced only by the coincidence (or mismatch, respectively) of the parents in the above-mentioned genes.
But in the process of inheriting polygenic traits (i.e., encoded by many genes at the same time), combinative variability “unfolds,” as they say, “in full.” Here, crossing over and haploidization do not spare either favorable gene combinations or “harmful” ones - with equal diligence they “stir” a complex gene ensemble capable of making its owner a Nobel Prize laureate, and a gene “confederation” ready to “seat” at the first opportunity owner on prison bunks. Whether to the joy or chagrin of parents - but the bulk of inclinations, abilities and talents belong specifically to the category of polygenically encoded traits - and this means that after the birth of a child, mothers and fathers should be ready to philosophically (with relief or slight regret) state: “ As it came, so it went..."
Now let's talk in more detail about what genes are and what the process of their formation is.
Gene relay...
None of the living people “made” their genes with their own hands - we all received them from our parents. Those, respectively, from their own, and so on... Reflections on where the first genes came from will either inevitably lead to the conclusion that “in the beginning was the Word”, or will “run into” a discussion impasse like “the egg and the chicken” . But it is obvious where the subsequent genomes came from - the instinct of “procreation” was initially “imprinted” into the DNA strand that stores information about the species Homosapiens. Any carrier of this information (provided that it is not defective) is genetically “doomed” to become the next link in the endless (hopefully) relay race of procreation.
An analogue of the relay baton in humans are the so-called haploid genomes of 10 gametes - half sets of genes contained in germ cells. In order for the above-mentioned relay race to be recognized as having taken place, a meeting of the haploid genomes of a man and a woman is necessary - and exclusively “on the territory” of the egg. The obligatory “bifurcation” of the human genome into maternal and paternal halves insures the multiplying humanity against the possibility of “stepping into the same water twice” - i.e. on the probability of the birth of genetically absolutely identical people...
Another exhale - and now a few words about another “trick” of our genome.
... Andgeneticlottery
The fact is that even half-genomes intended for transmission to descendants certainly differ from each other in all eggs and sperm of the parents. The reason for this is the variability encoded by the genome itself - during the maturation of germ cells in men and women, special genes strictly ensure that sections of chromosomes are thoroughly “mixed”. Geneticists call this process the sonorous term “crossing over.” In just a couple of generations, this tireless “croupier” is capable of “shuffling” the gene “decks” in the gametes of the members of a once “fruitful” family of geniuses and talents to an almost complete “un-
viability” in replicating these same geniuses and talents. The task of crossing over is the same as that of the genome haploidization mentioned above - it is an obstacle to the spread of similar gene combinations and ensuring the endless genetic diversity of humanity.
Another type of hereditary variability - mutation - is pouring water into the ever-tighter “mill” of genetic uniqueness. Its essence is that under the influence various factors external environment and during the functioning of the genome itself, the primary structure of genes changes - the “letters” - nucleotides 11 are lost, swapped, doubled... As a result of this, the structure of the proteins encoded by the genes changes - and, therefore, the characteristics of the human body, for the manifestation of which these the squirrels themselves answer. Mutagenesis" brings the evolutionary "concern" about the genetic uniqueness of the human individual to perfection - even monozygotic identical twins (essentially being natural clones) still differ from each other genetically. Due to single mutations that occurred in single genes at the very early stages intrauterine development...
The process of forming a combination of parental genes, which should form the basis of the life of their child, is very reminiscent of drawing some kind of multi-stage lottery - a lottery in which the winning combination of balls with
measures are not only mixed at once in two extremely intricately rotating mixers, but also in some incomprehensible way, previously applied numbers are constantly “erased” on the balls and new numbers are “drawn” on them. How the external and internal similarity of parents and children is generally ensured under these conditions is, as they say, “another question”...
A few words in conclusion
The genes that gave us life passed through hundreds of generations of our ancestors - in order to continue their path in hundreds of generations of our descendants. For thousands of years, the human genome has been working in human cells, trying by all means available to make each person unique - not for reasons of aesthetics, of course. But only so that natural selection, which does not know leniency, cannot put a “fat end” on the “biological career” of the species Homosapiens. For thousands of years, genes almost single-handedly decided the fate of humanity - and today we have the first real opportunities to take on this colossal responsibility. Whether we decide to correct the human gene pool using genetic engineering methods, whether we replace natural selection with artificial prenatal selection of our preferred genotypes, or whether we abandon both - this will be our and only our decision. Whether this will be correct - time will tell.
1 A gene is a section of DNA in which the sequence of nucleotides determines the sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide chain.
2 Replicon is a section of DNA undergoing the process of replication (the process of self-reproduction of nucleic acid molecules, accompanied by the inheritance from cell to cell of exact copies of genetic information at a certain point in time).
3 Operon is a section of genetic material consisting of 1, 2 or more linked structural genes that encode proteins (enzymes) that carry out successive stages of the biosynthesis of a substance.
4 Genetic code is a system for recording hereditary information in the form of a sequence of nucleotides in nucleic acid molecules. The unit of genetic code is a codon, or triplet (trinucleotide). The genetic code determines the order in which amino acids are included in the synthesized polypeptide chain.
5 Consumerization is the process of transforming various aspects of human life and society into an object of purchase and sale.
6 Bioethics is a set of principles and norms that operate on the basis of traditional spiritual values in the field of health and healthcare and regulate in this area the relationship of the state with society, family and the individual, as well as the relationship between the medical worker and the patient in connection with medical intervention.
7 Stem cell boom - development modern technologies treatment of serious diseases, including malignant tumors, using transplantation of special stem cells, the source of which can be umbilical cord blood, specially treated bone marrow and embryonic cells.
8 Genome - a set of genes contained in the haploid (single) set of chromosomes of a given organism.
9 Dominant traits always prevail and suppress recessive ones. Recessive traits appear only when a recessive trait from both mom and dad is found in the same chromosome set.
10 The haploid set contains a single set of chromosomes - in humans it is 23 chromosomes, the diploid set contains a double set of chromosomes - in humans it is 46 chromosomes.
11 Nucleotide is a substance consisting of a nitrogenous base, sugar and a phosphoric acid residue.
12 Mutagenesis (from “mutation” and “...genesis”) is the process of occurrence of hereditary changes in the body - mutations. The basis of mutagenesis is changes in nucleic acid molecules that store and transmit hereditary information. Methods of artificial mutagenesis are used to create high-yielding varieties of agricultural crops and highly productive strains of microorganisms.
