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Genotypes In My Family

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Heredity is basically the passing on of genetic traits from parents to offspring. Both phenotypes and genotypes are passed down from one’s parents. A genotype is the genetic code of one’s cells. These genetic codes consist of paired alleles and often fall into three categories: homozygous dominant (BB), Homozygous recessive (bb), and Heterozygous (Bb). Phenotypes are the physical expression of genotypes, for example, whether someone has freckles vs. if someone does not have freckles. Just like all other humans, I have inherited my traits from my mom and dad; some physical traits see amongst my family are free earlobes and widow’s peaks. My family consists of my mom, my dad, my little brother, and myself. A particular Mendelian trait, a trait that is determined by one gene, that both my brother and I have are free hanging earlobes. A free hanging earlobe is one that is not connected to one’s face and dangle’s down from the ear. Between my parents, my mom has free hanging earlobes while my dad’s earlobes are attached. My mother’s mom had free hanging earlobes while her father’s earlobes were attached. My dad’s parents both have earlobes that are attached to their faces just like my father. …show more content…

This means since my father’s earlobes are attached, differing from my mom’s free hanging ones, one of them has a homozygous recessive genotype. Due to the fact my brother and I both have free hanging earlobes like my mother, the probability is higher that free hanging earlobes are a dominant trait. For example, if my mom’s trait was heterozygous, meaning her phenotype would still be that of a dominant one, the probability my parents have a child with free earlobes is 50% along with the chance of having a child with attached at also 50 %. If my mom carried the homozygous dominant alleles instead of the heterozygous, the probability my parent’s offspring would have free hanging earlobes would be

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