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What our baby may look like...dominant vs. recessive.

I caught just a bit of this week's This American Life...it was about predictions for 2010. There was a segment with a guy trying to figure out what his daughter would look like based on what he and his wife look like. A friend of his makes the comment that although we know dominance in genetics it's not cut and dry because our traits have inter-bred for so long.

If I remember correctly even though I have brown eyes our child could have blue eyes because I may carry some of the recessive gene..Staci's eyes are blue. But like the guy (I forget his name) in the segment I can use the dominant/recessive genes as a guide.


 (Left: Staci, Right: Me with my grandfather (I'm the shorter one).

So if we go on straight dominance/recessiveness of genes here is what our baby will be like, unless noted the traits I pull out are dominant:
  • Brown-eyed (me)
  • Dark hair (me...although I had blond hair when I was young. I also had, and still have, sexy shoulders)
  • Curly hair (Staci...maybe wavy because that is heterozygous)
  • Full head of hair (both)
  • Widow's peak (me....and I love it)
  • No dimples (both but recessive)
  • No freckles (both but recessive)
  • No cleft in chin (both)
  • Broad lips (I don't know what the specs for broad and thin are but I think mine are broad and Staci's are thinner)
  • Unattached earlobes (me)
  • Almond shaped eyes (both)
  • Normal vision – sightedness (me)...Staci is near-sighted but that is recessive...I just got glasses this week but it's for minor astigmatism.
  • Normal vision – not color blind or night blind (both)
  • Only 5 fingers (both...apparently six fingers is dominant)
  • Not double jointed (both but recessive)
  • Immune to poison Ivy (me...I think I'm immune...Staci thinks she's had it)
  • Will be able to roll it's tongue (me)
  • Will be able to fold it's tongue (both but recessive)
One learning here is that I'm chock full of dominant genes while Staci has a bunch of recessive ones. It helps to paint the picture a bit but not knowing the gender still makes it hard. I find the 6 finger thing to be interesting. If it was dominant wouldn't more people have 6 fingers?  That makes me start thinking about evolution...are we evolving into a 6 finger species? Probably not.

I have an extra bone in my ankle called an accessory bone...I know because it lead to my feet hurting like a bitch which lead to some toe surgery a couple years back...the bone is still there. When I was talking to my doctor about why it's there he wondered if it's a vestigial bone or something we are evolving into...his guess was vestigial because it offers nothing good for how we walk.

I would have been more excited if it's where we are evolving to. Not sure if it's dominant, recessive or even genetic...I just know I hope our baby get's Staci's normal feet...but maybe a bit bigger though...she wears a size 4.5 show and it sucks for her when she goes shoe shopping.

Want to figure out what traits your baby will have? Check out the two links below.
http://www.blinn.edu/socialscience/LDThomas/Feldman/Handouts/0203hand.htm
http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/jiwilliams/Human_Traits.htm

Comments

  1. This post is very interesting to me! You should compare this to what traits your kid has once here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. lol...loving the sexy shoulder! I am sure your little one will be gorgeous and take after his or her mother!! By the way, I think the first child always looks more like the father; it makes the father feel more special then and the second time around the mum gets more of a look in..... well that has been the way it has happened for us and all of my friends, so will be interested to see if you have the same.... not long now!

    ReplyDelete
  3. lol...loving the sexy shoulder! I am sure your little one will be gorgeous and take after his or her mother!! By the way, I think the first child always looks more like the father; it makes the father feel more special then and the second time around the mum gets more of a look in..... well that has been the way it has happened for us and all of my friends, so will be interested to see if you have the same.... not long now!

    ReplyDelete

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