Genes question?

Question

Ok, I have been reading about genetics & thought I had a pretty good insight UNTIL!!! .............. Yesterday whe shoppping I saw a woman with her partner & two children, the eldest (a boy) had brighjt red hair & the little girl had blonde hair - (what hair she had). I looked at both parents hair & they were brownish/blonde.

Sooooooooooo, can non red headed parent still produce a red haired child???

confused!!

Also is it 100% that x 2 red haired parents would produce a red haired child??

Answer 1

Red hair is a recessive gene.  The child has to inherit it from both parents to have red hair.  

Red-haired parents will have red-haired children only if the child gets the gene from both parents.  If, say, the child gets one red hair gene and one brown hair gene, the child will have brown hair.

Answer 2

Yes it is possible for non redheads to produce red headed children. The red gene was obviously somewhere in their family line and got passed down, it was just the recessed gene and not the dominant gene. It is not 100% that two red haired parents would produce a red haired child, just like you saw two brown haired parents did not produce two brown haired children.

There are four parts to genetics when producing a child, meaning there's a 1 in 4 chance of having certain things based upon family history and genetics.

Two blue eyed parents have a 50/50 chance of having a child with blue eyes. As there would be two genetic boxes filled with bb (blue gene), but if it were Bb and Bb they would be more likely to have brown eyes. It can get kind of complicated.

Answer 3

red hair is known as recessive gene - it can skip a genration.

Those people may have had a red haired grandparent - otr the children could be adopted!

So no, it is not 10% hat 2 red haired people will have a red haired child

Answer 4

Red is a resessive gene that pops up in wierd places. I don't think you could accurately guess when it will. My husband and I are both red. Our parents are brown and black. We both have a sibling that started red but went brown. Red does run in our families, but of the aunts, uncles, cousins, he has 1 red and I have none. All of our children (3) are red. The third is slightly darker than the elder two that have the same shade. Mine is still very red and my husband's is starting to turn a reddy brown. I cannot guarantee 2 reds produce only reds, but that's what we've done so far!

Answer 5

Hair coloring is not as simple as many of the genetic traits.  It is possible for colors to combine, a hidden gene to come up, or a mutation to occur...causing hair color that may not be that of the parents.  Depending on how blonde the child was...she could have been bordering on albino hair...which is not a genetic trait, but a mutation of genes.  Red hair seems to come out of the wood-work.  I have one red-headed cousin...her mom and dad are both dark haired.  My grandparents are both dark haired...but my grandmother's father was a flaming red-head.  And it is not 100% that two red-heads will have a red-headed child.  They can get a blonde too.

Answer 6

that  'family' may have no even been a family. It could be two people babysitting their friends kids OR a dad and the step-mom. There is also such a thing as hair dye....

but yep two non red heads can produce a red head.. my boyfriends mum and dad both have brown hair and their oldest has brown hair, their second oldest has brown hair, their third oldest is blonde and the fourth is ginger.

My cousins mum and dad have jet black hair and he has white blonde hair....

so yeah hair colour genes can't reeeally be determined.