[HPforGrownups] Re: wizard geneology - Genius or Baloney?

[chnc1024 at earthlink.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 148097

>
> --- 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.
>
***************************************************

Chancie:

Yes, you are right we do have A LOT of different genes, I was simply
talking about the genes for 1 trait. For example, brown eyes
are more dominate that blue eyes.  So if 2 people with brown eyes have 
a baby, it is possible for that child to have blue eyes, if both parents are
carriers of the recessive "blue eye" trait.  Kinda like this.
  

Lets use B for brown eyes (dominant genes are USUALLY shown as caps)
and b for blue eyes.

    	      B      b
	
	B   [BB]  [Bb]
	
	b    [Bb]   [bb]


The above shows that if these two people had a child, they would have 
a 3 in 4 chance of having a child with brown eyes, and a 1 in 4 chance
of having a brown eyed baby.  


*****************************************************

> bboyminn again:

> 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.
>
*******************************************************

Chancie:

Absolutely correct!


*******************************************************

> bboyminn again:
> 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.

<Snip>

> 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'. 
******************************************************

Chancie:

Now I'm not a genetic expert, but the way I was taught is that you get
1 gene from each parent for a specific trait.  And JKR said that 
Magic is dominate, and Squibs are VERY rare, and that if you have
any magical abilities, then you are admitted to Hogwarts.  I'm quite 
sure that you are right that wizards/witches would posses a "how 
gifted in magic" gene, but I don't believe it would be combined
with the "Magic or Not" gene, but then again I could be wrong 
of course, wouldn't be the first and I'm certain it wouldn't be the
last, however this is my take on the situation.