#100 Oversimplified Genetic Traits (English)

It’s already our 100th post. I would like to thank all the members of KSJBIO: Helena, Aoife, Jess, Ana María, Arina, Isabella, Romy, Sabrina, Snigdha, and Sophie. We will continue to do our best to reach 1000th Post! We promise to do our best to publish best quality posts on interesting biology facts.

KSJ

Here is our 100th Post. Enjoy!

A trait is a specific characteristic of an organism. It can be determined by genes or the environment, or most commonly by interactions between the two.

As many of you know already we are able to do some pretty weird things with our tongues. The majority of the population are able to roll their tongues as shown to the right. Often people are told that this is down to our genetics. In the 1940s a study was conducted to see whether or not both identical twins were able to roll their tongues. The results showed that in cases only one twin could while the other could not. This led to the conclusion that being able to roll your tongue is not in your genes. This became known in the early 1950s despite the fact that most people had been told from a young age that it was all to do with genes. In reality there are cases where the environment plays a role. Essentially it involves the whole idea of “nature vs. nurture.” Many people can break genetic bounds and teach themselves the sacred art of tongue rolling. In other cases, it could just come down to a developmental quirk, like your position in the womb.

This leads us to the question of whether or not several other “genetic traits” are really down to genetics. Hand clasping is another area thought to have something to do with genetics. There is a myth that the reason some people put their left thumb on top while others do the opposite is a result of genetic makeup. Once again this theory was disproven by observing the activity of identical twins.

Often times we are told that two brown eyed parents can not have a blue eyed child while two red headed parents can not have a child with non red hair. This is not the case. Both of these things are determined by variation of genes meaning both are possible.

Earlobes too are usually said to be split into two categories: those attached to the head and those that are detached. This is an oversimplification there is in fact a sliding scale between attached and free. Two of the early studies on the matter disagreed  on which was the dominant trait, showing that the genetics involved aren't as simple as we thought or were taught.

So to conclude you can see that we are sometimes told oversimplifications of reality. Interesting traits are often times much more complicated that we initially thought and more research must be done to show why exactly these traits occur.

McA