Expert: Thanemozhi Natarajan - 12/13/2007

Question
Hello,
The father of my child is of 100%perecent german heritage. I am half Italian and half polish. Our child is an exact replica of her father. We both have brown hair and brown eyes. Besides looking like him she also has the same blood type as he does and other quirky traits. Is german heritage a stronger influence over my backround? or what is the scientific explanation for this ( if there is one ) thanks

Answer
Well, firstly,dominant features wrt inheritance are present in every race and every individual resulting from random mating practices. So it does not make scientific sense to categorize natives of a particular nation as having a stronger influence over the other. However, individual genetic characteristics have dominant and recessive "alleles" or genes. If one partner happens to possess the dominant alleles for many genes that are reflected outwardly, then there is a good chance of the offspring displaying features resembling this parent. Remember that children get 50% of the genetic material from the mother and 50% from the father. The child's resemblance to either parent (wrt to each feature) will depend on the dominant alleles that he/she inherits from either parents and in what combination. In your child's case she probaly inherited many dominant alleles from paternal side, whose physical manifestation is visible to the eye or can be detectd by clinical tests.