mendelian genetics

[Alex boyd]

No: HPFGUIDX 123685

I don't *think* anyone has posted this yet on the genetics "how do squibs 
happen?" thread, but....

It's important to remember that complex traits are typically governed by 
more than one gene.  It's not even clear (to the best of my knowledge)  that 
eye color (the example usually used in biology textbooks)  is governed only 
by one gene.  So if being a wizard or not is genetically determined (and 
maybe it isn't), it's probably determined by lots of genes.  And maybe a 
person has to have a certain number of W's (to use the notation established 
earlier in the thread)  to manifest the wizard trait.

And, given that muggle-born wizards are much more common than Squibs 
(according to Ron, anyway), I'd say the Wizard gene (or genes) is probably 
dominant.

Alex