[HPforGrownups] Magical Genetics/ Voldemort's plan

[ksnidget at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 44243

-Corinth writes:


<<<Possibility #1: a single magic allele
   Being that squibs are rare, I assume that the magic allele is the 
dominant one, M.  Therefore Muggles would have the genotype mm, and 
wizards either Mm or MM.  The recessive m allele must undergo mutation 
to M at a pretty high frequency to account for the appearance of 
magical ability in children with Muggle parents.  
   However, in this scheme, squibs could appear in many ways (50% of 
half-blood/muggle couples' children, 25% of half-blood/half-blood 
couples' children, etc.).  This doesn't tally with the Wizarding World 
as we know it.>>>

Injecting a little Molecular Genetics into a Mendelian Genetics
argument.

There are genes that are known that quite frequently mutate from
the recessive state to the dominate state.

Interestingly most of them are genes that effect the brain, and
there seems to be some mental aspect to magic.

These genes share the trait that they have a long stretch of
repeated DNA.  This stretch is long enough to be unstable.
The length can change, sometimes dramatically, between
generations.  When the length gets above a certain threshold
it changes the protein that is made from it enough to effect
the function. Once the gene converts from the short recessive
length to the dominate long length it usually stays long from
each generation to the next.  However, it is probably that on
rare occasion it reverts to a shorter repeat.

I proposed a while ago that the Magic allele may be such a
gene.

If it were you would see a fairly substantial number of muggle
born wizards.

The children of muggle born wizards would be magical.

F1 hybrids (lets be technical...a Muggle parent and a Magical
one) would all be magical.

There would be some chance that the gene could revert to
the non-magical state, but this would be a rare event.

This seems to match the pattern of inheritance that we see
described in the Wizarding world.

Of course molecular genetics is a weird and wild place and
no matter what we knew about the inheritance of magic it is
likely that we could find a scenario that fits.

Ksnidget.  <who has a degree in Genetics of all things>


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