Questions tagged [genetics]

Genetics is the branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics.

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What is the latest consensus on the causes of sexuality?

In 2019, scientists concluded that there is no gay gene. Epigentic markers of homosexuality have been disproven. The Exotic becomes Erotic Theory is an ancient decrepit idea that holds no water. Yet, ...
Aaron's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why does Meiosis produce 4 daughter cells instead of 2? Won't splitting the initial diploid cell into two haploid cells be easier?

At first, I thought it was because of crossing-over, but when I thought more about it, that didn't seem reasonable. Why don't cells just do meiosis like this? (I know that we don't understand all the ...
Zo-Bro-23's user avatar
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How many genes of an individual are homozygous?

We have 20000 to 25000 protein-coding genes. Considering an individual, how many of his\her protein-coding genes are homozygous? I am looking for an estimation of gene homozygosity ratio in human ...
MySky's user avatar
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Could someone explain how chromosomes are counted here?

I'm not sure how chromosomes are counted in this picture. I would reason that there would be 8 chromosomes in the diploid cell, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Could someone explain?
bobfriand's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
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Gene Sequencing [closed]

The human genome project took an effort of around 15 years, billions of dollars and thousands of scientists working together. So how is that the genetic sequencing of covid variants could be done at ...
Tarique's user avatar
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What is the probability for an offspring to inherit schizophrenia? [closed]

If an European male (i.e. white) is diagnosed with schizophrenia, but an European female (also white) 2-3 years younger than the male is healthy, what is the probability that their first child will: a)...
mercury0114's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
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The village of Twins — Mystery behind and Scope

With the presence of more than 200 twins, Kodinhi , a village situated in Malappuram District in Kerala , India , is popularly known as the "Village of Twins".This phenomenon of large ...
Asmi's user avatar
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Does DNA ligase have any role to play in replication on leading strand?

Actually I developed this doubt while solving some questions(they are poorly framed I suspect). According to my notes and my institute modules, 1 RNA primer is required on the leading strand as well ...
Vibhav Agarwal's user avatar
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Method of determining base values of traits in isolated populations

Prelude: I came across a discussion about the correct formula for calculating the average IQ of offspring, which goes something like the following $$ 100 + \frac35 \left( \left(\text{father's IQ} + \...
Maximilian's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
579 views

What is the difference between Haploinsufficient and Autosomal Dominant mutations

I have been reading a paper that classifies genes in different groups by the type of disease-causing mutations. The categories of mutations (alleles) it gives are: Haploinsufficient Autosomal ...
Manolo Dominguez Becerra's user avatar
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What is an example of a benign or beneficial de novo copy number variation?

Duplication events in particular. In any species. Have enough genomes been sequenced and studied to identify any? It is rather easy to find studies which identify them with diseases but have they ever ...
James Marsden's user avatar
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Do ethnic groups differ in non-coding DNA?

There are services (23andme, AncestryDNA) that will associate an ethnic group to you from your spit. Could non-coding DNA in theory be useful for this goal i.e. are there statistically meaningful ...
fielanb's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
109 views

Are coding DNA and invariant DNA independent as subsets of the human genome?

Within the human genome we can identify the coding DNA and the invariant DNA i.e. the DNA that is shared by all humans. For example here the authors claim to identify a sequence that is shared not ...
goe's user avatar
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How can a nucleotide falling *outside* a binding site affect a transcription factor's ability to bind to said site?

In this paper regarding a polymorphism within the AQP7 gene and its potential effects on one's metabolic profile, the authors use a luciferase assay to confirm that the alleles of this SNP have a ...
小奥利奥's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
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New ORFs occurring in SARS-CoV-2 due to mutations

Are there examples of new ORFs in SARS-CoV-2 created by mutations? The ORFs should not be present in the reference virus, but they should occur in a lineage occurring in the wild (at best, being part ...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
129 views

Saving a Maize Landrace from Inbreeding Depression

I have 10 seeds of a rare corn landrace. I probably won't be able to acquire more and the cultigen's long term fate is unknown. So, I want to do my best to preserve it for future generations. Corn is ...
JOhnny's user avatar
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Are there traits exhibiting avoidance of the mean?

Sometimes if two organisms with an unusually large value of a continuous trait mate their offspring on average will not have a value as large as one might naively expect. Regression toward the mean is ...
xort's user avatar
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Can offspring be less genetically similar to the parent than more distant relatives?

I'd be interested in answers about any sexually reproducing species, but for simplicity I'm going to focus on humans in this question. If the parents are very genetically different (i.e. the number of ...
Jonah's user avatar
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How is it determined whether a chromosome is maternal or paternal for imprinting?

For imprinting, how does the cell determine which chromosome is maternal and which is paternal? For example, in the parental imprinting of insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2) on chr7 (autosome), how ...
searching for clues's user avatar
-1 votes
2 answers
67 views

Heterozygous traits with advantages over homozygous traits

I used to believe that there are "good" alleles and "bad" alleles and having two "good" alleles could never be worse than having one "good" and one "bad&...
paveraceae's user avatar
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1 answer
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Can the effect of an allele on height be context-dependent?

Some data is available on the effect alleles have on height. For example Common DNA Variants Accurately Rank an Individual of Extreme Height However after browsing the literature I was not able to ...
SKG's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why do humans share over 99% of their genomes?

From Wikipedia The haploid human genome (23 chromosomes) is about 3 billion base pairs long and contains around 30,000 genes.[33] Since every base pair can be coded by 2 bits, this is about 750 ...
SKG's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
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Is it possible to fuse DNA from two sperms and can a baby be born from that? [closed]

If this is possible, then isn't there going to be a chance to have a YY child?
Aranya's user avatar
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1 answer
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Are restriction sites added on to the ends of a DNA fragment or are they just conveniently there?

For a DNA fragment to be inserted, it must have two restriction sites on either end. My textbook makes it seem that this is naturally occurring but it seems a little too convenient, are they added in ...
confusionpersonified's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
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How many MAOA alleles are there?

The question is about the human gene MAOA. I've seen MAOA-H and MAOA-L mentioned in papers. The page https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?db=core;g=ENSG00000189221;r=X:43654907-43746824 ...
pans's user avatar
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homologous recombination and non-homologous recombination ratio during S-phase

Can I assume that it is easier to do targeted gene knock-in in rapidly dividing cells because they should have a short period of G1? Is there an easy way to measure the relative amounts of homologous ...
tassaneel's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
105 views

Is it possible to assert who is the parent/child by looking at DNA sequence only?

Suppose I have whole genome sequences for two people of the same sex. I know one person is the parent of the other, but I do not know who is the parent and who is the child. Is it possible to ...
untreated_paramediensis_karnik's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
72 views

Extensions of proteins in SARS-CoV-2 variants

What lineages of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 occurring in the wild show some extensions, i.e., mutations of the stop codons to codons encoding amino acids (mutations to another stop codon don't count ...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
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1 answer
159 views

Did Dinosaurs have a neocortex? [closed]

Did dinosaurs have a neocortex in their brains? If not, when did it come into existence?
Samyak Marathe's user avatar
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2 answers
58 views

Do the genes for external viral epitopes mutate faster than for viral machinery (e.g. Proteases)?

To fight SARS-COV-2 we use vaccines which train our immune system against viral epitopes like the external S(pike) protein. Since these structures change a lot, would it not have been a better idea to ...
Mourinho_1's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is it possible for a brown cat to birth an orange kitten?

I have a brown (cinnamon) cat, I assume her alleles would be b’b’ and oo. She was bred with either a black male (B_ o) or an orange male (__ O), or both if it’s possible for her to have carried the ...
jeln's user avatar
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-1 votes
3 answers
495 views

Red and White Flower or purely Pink? Phenotype of a Flower Species with a Co-dominant Trait

As I understand it, co-dominance is when both genes in an allelomorphic pair produce both their effects equally on the organism in question whilst incomplete dominance applies to an instance where a ...
Shane's user avatar
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-1 votes
2 answers
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How can you identify recessive mutations in a gene that has been disrupted by a chromosomal translocation?

I am reading a journal paper about a patient who has intellectual disability. The patient was found to have a balanced chromosomal translocation t(11;16)(q24.2;q24). This chromosomal translocation ...
ceno980's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Are there any online resources for visualising on which band of a chromosome a particular gene is located?

I am studying some genes that are expressed in the brain. I use the online database UniProt to get information about the proteins encoded by the genes of interest. However, I would like to know on ...
ceno980's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
563 views

Are there any phenotypically visible examples of gene linkage in humans?

Are there any examples of two "visible" or "obvious" phenotypic traits in humans that are a priori unrelated, but which tend to be inherited together (i.e. their inheritance ...
tparker's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
136 views

Coronavirus lineages with amino acid insertions

Is there an overview over SARS-CoV-2 lineages that have some insertions in their genomes? Tools based on GISAID sequences do not show them. I am aware of a few lineages with insertions Mu with S:...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
77 views

How often are diseases caused by more than a single mutation of a gene?

Many genetic diseases are caused by mutations in a gene and often, it is a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that has dramatic consequences (e.g. the E6V hemoglobin mutation in sickle cell disease)....
Anonymous's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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When doing crosses (Punnett square) with drosophila, how can you be *sure* your parents are *pure lines*? [duplicate]

In plants, when someone wants to confirm that the parents are pure lines (homozygous) for the alleles studied, the person can self pollinate the plant to make sure that the descendants are identical ...
M. Beausoleil's user avatar
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0 answers
37 views

Relative abundance and action of 5p and 3p microRNAs

I am a beginner in genetic research and am currently conducting a project concerning microRNAs. Let's say we have miR-1-5p. If miR-1-5p is upregulated in a disease, will miR-1-3p always be ...
medicos's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
65 views

Difference between heritability on the scale of liability versus the scale of observation

I was reading a paper on disease heritability ("Estimating Missing Heritability for Disease from Genome-wide Association Studies") and it struck me that I don't have a great understanding of ...
xavayey244's user avatar
-1 votes
3 answers
303 views

How do we know if a trait is genetic rather than via rearing environment?

In articles like this one, I often read that several "genes variants are associated to a given trait". It is often added: "genetic factors explain (say) 20% of the trait variance." ...
bixiou's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
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Hybrid corn yield vs mass-selected corn

I am a social scientist and I was reading "The political economy of hybrid corn" by Jean-Pierre Berlan and Richard Lewontin. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA4325182&sid=...
hbkn's user avatar
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0 answers
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Why do chromosome pairs have different shapes and sizes?

When I look at microscopic images of human chromosome pairs I see that they have different shapes and sizes. Is there a deeper biological reason for that? Is there some evolutionary pressure for them ...
zxc's user avatar
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-1 votes
2 answers
53 views

Chromosomal disorders

I was reading about chromosomal disorders and encountered a line stating that 'An individual may lack one of any one pair of chromosomes' So does it mean that an individual cannot have monosomy of ...
Krish Chaudhari's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
55 views

Can CNVs have a phenotypic effect unrelated to the direct modification of transcriptional units?

I'd like to know how (or if) copy number variations can have a phenotypic effect unrelated to the direct disruption/movement/duplication of sequences for coding regions, promoters, enhancers etc. I ...
snord's user avatar
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-1 votes
1 answer
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Is there any way siblings could be related more than 3/4th siblings, but less than full siblings?

I couldn’t find anything on Wikipedia. 3/4th siblings are 37.5% related while full siblings are 50% related. Is there anything in between?
The Mamba's user avatar
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-8 votes
1 answer
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Searching for a vaccine vs searching for poor genes in the covid-19 pandemic

I have only basic knowledge about biology. I have some propositions (may be wrong) and a question about the covid-19 pandemic. In 1918, the world had a similar pandemic, the Spanish Flu. Millions of ...
M.SEL's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
610 views

Pedigree probability question - complete penetrance

The inheritance pattern of a common trait that shows complete penetrance is shown below: What is the kind of inheritance? If III-1 is a carrier, what is the probability of IV-1 (from III-1 and III-2 ...
Chan's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
260 views

Pedigree probability question

The following pedigree shows the inheritance pattern of a trait. From the following, select the possible mode of inheritance and the probability that the daughter in generation III will show the trait....
Chan's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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Monogenic disorders vs multifactorial inheritance disorders

There's a condition called SYNGAP1-related intellectual disability which is caused by mutations to the SYNGAP1 gene. I believe that this is called a monogenic disorder, while disorders that are caused ...
Derek H's user avatar
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