Babies!!?? Questions about traits?

Question

I was just wondering are the fathers genes a bit stronger then the mothers?

recently someone made a comment that most babies tend to come out looking more like there fathers nose/lips/eyes/hair color-texture/eye color..is it true because after they said that I noticed it to! My little cousins father is black & white with hazle eyes her mother has brown hair & eyes,both of there parents have brown hair & eyes but she came out looking just like her father & her eyes are blue,right now she is 2yrs old the only thing she got from her mom was the texture of her hair & for my other little cousin whos a boy he looks just like his dad also but has hazle eyes which his mother & father have brown & green eyes! also my other cousins oldest son has dark tan skin but him & his first gf both had white skin..can someone tell me why the traits mix & match so much?? or why children tend to look more like there father???

Answer 1

that's c**p. lol

my oldest looks just like his dad, my middle son just like me, my daughter like her father and my youngest like me.

we are batting 2 for 2!

my hubby and i are totally different in hair color, eye color and skin color.

hubby is jet black hair, green eyes, and dark completion

I'm a strawberry dark blonde, blue/grey eyes, and fair completion.

have a look at my 360- you'll be able to tell who looks like who! lol  

Answer 2

The story goes that bubs will look more like dad so that Dad feels more "connected"... Mum has had bubs for 9 months and has had that time to bond. As far as I know this is not actually scientifically correct. I will do my best to explain what I learnt in year 11 biology (a good 7 years ago lol) it might get confusing as it is hard to do without diagrams etc....

Each physical trait (e.g. hair colour, eye colour, shape of nose, etc) is determined by a set of genes called alleles. Everyone should have 2 alleles for each different physical trait.

Some of these alleles are dominant and some are recessive. I'll give you a fairly basic example based on eyes colour (blue versus brown eyes).

Blue eyes are carried in a recessive allele while brown eyes are dominant. If you have one dominant and one recessive allele (so in this case one allele for blue and one for brown) the dominant trait will show up...so the person will have brown eyes. If both are dominant then obviously that trait will show up (brown eyes again) if both are recessive then the recessive trait will show (blue eyes).

So let's say two ppl have a baby. Both mum and dad have brown eyes but carry the blue eye gene (so they both have one brown allele and one blue allele for eyes)

They each pass on one of these alleles (randomly). So the combinations can be:

2 brown (both pass a brown allele...hence bubs will have brown eyes)

1 brown 1 blue (one passes brown one passes blue ...note there are two chances of this combination and it will lead to brown eyes)

2 Blue (both pass blue leading to blue eyes)

So, hope I'm not confusing you, in this situation bubs has a 3 out of 4 (or 75% chance of havgin brown eyes) and 25% of having blue.

Now take this example and apply to different traits and you can see how sibling may have different eye colour, different skin etc.

If two different dominant alleles are passed on (such as in your example of brown and green eyes) they mix, making a combination of the two (hazel eyes)

I hope this helps and feel free to ask if you didn't understand anything.

Answer 3

I think that's just an old wives tale.  I do know that eye colour isn't as random as the other traits though.  I remember doing it in school biology but some eye colours are dominant genes and some are recessive.  Combine the two and the dominant one will always out.  I cant remember which is the dominant one though... I think it's brown. OR is it blue?  Cant remember.  Anyway with the recessive ones you have to have two parents with the recessive gene to have that eye colour.  My little one looks nothing like me now at 5 months or at birth.  She only has my dimples.  Otherwise she's a mini-daddy!

Answer 4

No, it's not true. DNA doesn't care WHERE the genes come from, just what the genes say.

My children look like a mix of all my family. Only two of the six look a fair amount like their father.

Answer 5

I don't think it's true at all - both my kids looked far more like me at birth than like their dad. If it's happened the other way round in your family, it's just a fluke. Babies may look like either parent at birth - or like neither of them.

Answer 6

They don't. There are numerous combinations that a child can have. In fact, they may not look like the mother or father, but look like a grandparent or great grandparent. What your describing has more to do with dominant and recessive traits, not who it comes from. Out of me and my two sisters, only one looks like my father... she has pale skin, light brown hair, and green eyes, which are from my father's side. Again, that's due to recessive and dominant genes.