Inheritance
6 questions tagged Inheritance — spanning every one of the seven Ws.
Why do babies usually inherit mitochondria from their mother?
Because the egg supplies nearly all the cytoplasm and organelles to the embryo, while sperm mitochondria are usually destroyed after fertilization. That makes mitochondrial DNA mostly maternal.
Why do some genetic traits skip a generation?
A trait can seem to skip a generation if it is recessive or influenced by multiple genes. The trait may be present in carriers without showing outwardly.
What is an allele?
An allele is one version of a gene. Different alleles help explain why people can inherit different traits, such as eye color or blood type.
What is a carrier in genetics?
A carrier is someone who has one copy of a recessive disease-causing variant but usually does not have symptoms. They can still pass the variant to their children.
What is polygenic inheritance?
Polygenic inheritance means a trait is influenced by many genes rather than just one. Height and skin pigmentation are classic examples.
How does the human body inherit traits from both parents?
A child inherits one set of chromosomes from the mother and one set from the father. That means each person gets two versions of most genes.