Wizard Genetics

[Sarah Rettger]

No: HPFGUIDX 6386

>>>>Put these together (and leave aside that
immaculate conception Lucas 
threw in on us!)  and you get the notion that if
there's a 
Spoonbender Gene, it's genetically dominant- this of
course begs the 
question of why are they a minority? <<<<<


I don't think it would be possible for the wizarding
gene to be dominant.  <digs out biology knowledge,
unused for months.>  In this case, the allele for
wizarding abilities would be dominant (W), while the
gene for no wizarding abilities would be recessive
(w).  People with the genotypes WW and Ww would all be
wizards, while people with the genotype ww would be
Muggles.  However, two people who are Muggles (ww)
could not possibly produce a child with even one of
the dominant alleles:

        w       w
     w  ww      ww
     
     w  ww      ww

There is no way two Muggle parents could produce a
Muggle-born wizard baby, yet Muggle-borns seem to be
common in Harry's world.  That would work only if the
wizarding gene were recessive.

Science aside, genetics seems far too mundane a way
for wizarding abilities to be handed out.  It would be
simple to run a test on every baby to check for the
wizarding gene (although this is a possibility -
parents are told at the birth that their child is a
wizard, and this is why none of them seem upset about
letting their children go off to Hogwarts.)  However,
I seem to remember Colin Creevy saying that his family
was shocked to find out that he was a wizard, so this
seems unlikely.

Sarah








=====
Don't refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase.  That's what wild geese are for. -- Anon.

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. -- A. A. Milne

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