Do you think these sisters look alike?
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Courtesy of Corel
You Have Your Parents’ Genes!
Aunt Maggie says you have your father's eyes.
Grandma says you have your mother's smile.
Could you actually have the traits from these other people? If you are genetically
related to them then yes, you could. Half of
your genes
are from your mother and half are from your father. But you might look more
like one of them than the other. Why is that?
Tucked within chromosomes in
each of the trillions of cells in
your body are genes that you inherited from your parents. Your have two versions
of each type of gene. One comes from your mother and the other comes from your
father. Both genes of a pair deal with the same trait, but they might have different
instructions. For instance, one gene for eye color might say blue while the
other one says brown.
One of those genes wins out and its instructions are carried out. It's
called the dominant gene. The other one is still there but
your body doesn't listen to its instructions. It's called a recessive
gene.
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