wizard geneology - Genius or Baloney?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 148089

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Chancie" <chnc1024 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Susan McGee wrote:
> > Let's call the gene M for Magick. In order to be a witch/wizard
> > you must have one Magick gene.
> >
> > You can have one to four Magick genes....1 - 2 from each parent. 
> > The more Magick genes you have the more potentially powerful a 
> > witch or wizard.
> >
> > A bunch of Muggles have one M gene, but never figure it out
> > because they have Muggle parents, and their magic is not very 
> > strong so it doesn't manifest itself ...
> 
> 
> *************************************************************
> 
> Chancie:
> 
> 
> Just wanted to comment a bit. While you have the POTENTIAL having
> a combination of any 4 genes, you would only get 1 from your mom 
> and 1 from your dad.If you got all your Parents genes, then with
> in a few generations you'd have like 16 genes for only 1 trait!
> ...
>
> I hope that helps clear things up a bit.
>

bboyminn:

I'm certainly no expert, or even a novice, in the field of genetics,
but don't we all have ALL genes. I was pretty sure the number was
fixed, and whether a particular gene was active depended on the
combinations of that genes from your parents. I don't remember the
exact total, but I think the mathematical number of combinations is
somewhere around 7 billion.

Unless I'm mistaken the DNA chain splits in half length-wise, and half
of your mother's combines with half of your fathers. That is all of
your fathers 'halves' combine with all of your mother's halves, and
the combination creates a complete DNA ladder. When two specific DNA
halves mate, they create the genetic characteristic of blue eyes,
brown eyes, prone to cancer, or whatever.

So, if there are four magic genes they can either be active or
dormant. Let me represent 'active' genes with CAPITAL letters and
dormant genes with lower case letters.

Now say the Father is ABcd and the mother is aBCd, the son would
surely be, at bare minimum, aBcd. Both parents are 'B' active, that
guarantees that the son would be 'B' active. Now however, the father
is 'A' active while the Mother is 'C' active, but the Mother is 'a'
inactive and the Father is 'c' inactive. I think those genes are
somewhat luck of the draw. Though not necessarily mathematically
correct, in general, the son has a 50/50 chance of either being 'A'
active, 'C' active, or both.

So the son is guaranteed to be

aBcd

but could potentially also be any one of the following

ABcd
aBCd
ABCd

The comination is guaranteed to always produce 'B' active and 'd'
inactive, and 'ac/AC' are luck of the draw.

I think a Squib is created when an 'aBcD' father marries a 'AbCd'
mother, and by luck of the draw, the son turns out to be 'abcd', or
all magic genes are 'inactive'. The most powerful wizard would be
created by the combination of an 'ABCd' Father and an 'aBCD' mother,
and luck of the draw produce an 'ABCD' son (or daughter). The minimum
the son could be, would be 'aBCd'. 

Now, the various combinations could reflect the nature of the wizards
skill. Perhaps, 'ABcd' active would lean more toward Charms, and
'abCD' would lean more toward Tranfiguations, and 'aBCd' would be good
at both. Allowing for 'luck of the draw', I calculate that there could
be 256 combinations of four genes. (4^4=256).

Muggle parents could produce a mutation where an 'abcd' Father and an
'abcd' Mother accidently producted an 'Abcd' child. 

I suspect that typically two genes are active (AbCd, ABcd, abCD,
etc...). This represents a normal magical person. A single active gene
would be magical but weak. Three active genes would produce a gifted
magical person, and four active genes would produce a magical genius.
Keep in mind that no one is defined by a small cluster of genes. A
person with three active magic genes but low inteligence and
motivations (genetically) will not do as well as a person with the
standard two active genes and a high intelligence and one who is also
stongly motivated. 

Is there anyone who is more knowledgable in genetics than I am who
could tell me if I'm on to something, or if I'm full of baloney?

Just curious.

Steve/bboyminn