Strong DNA?

Question

I was browsing threw some random mixed people who are mixed with latino and white. I noticed that all the people who had latina mother and white fathers, the kids looked way more latino. yet when the mother was white and the father was latino, the kids looked way more white.. why is this? is mothers dna stronger? i just chose some random mixed people, some celebritys and one of my friends. take a look at this pic, its a collarge of pics that are labeled http://i30.tinypic.com/24cinit.jpg . i know people are going to say the usual dna is split 50/50 but don't forget we only get our mothers mitchondrial dna, could that be the reason? (by the way in the pics the people are the only mixed celebritys and people i know who are mixed with latino and white)

AND its not just that but i also feel like the people with latino mothers and white fathers are latino, and i feel like the ones with white mothers and latino fathers are white because ALLL the ones with latino mothers talk spanish but all the ones with latino fathers don't talk spanish well except from christina aguilera and she doesn't even talk it very well..

Answer 1

I have heard the mother has stronger DNA and plus my mom is Black and my dad is Latino and I look more black!!!

Answer 2

Well I dont know to be honest but I can throw in another example

I'm white her father is Korean

My daughter is pale skin green eyes blond hair

Answer 3

There's no such thing. For every example A, there is example B.

My mom is mixed russian and chinese and looks completely russian. One time we all went to moscow and I found about ten women who looked like they could all be my mom's sisters.

Then my mom married a french guy and had a boy who basically looks like the male version of my mom and then me who has my dad's hair/eye color, asian hair texture, the haircolor of a french grandparent and I get asked if I'm part native american on a weekly basis, almost.

Then, I have second cousins who are 1/8 chinese and have epicanthic folds and black hair... they easily pass for half all the time.

My friend has a german american mom and a vietnamese dad and she looks completely vietnamese.

Another friend of mine has a latino/white dad and a japanese/white mom and looks completely white... her brother looks eurasian and her sister looks like a giant melting pot of all the features, basically. She looks nothing like anyone else in the family.

Then I know another girl who has a japanese dad and an irish mom and she has brown hair, green eyes and the most stereotypically japanese looking face you'll ever see in your life. Yes, green eyes with giant epicanthic folds, etc. People always accuse her of being a japanese girl who wants to look white and it's really upsetting to her. She tried dyeing her hair black once in high school and fried it to death.

And I have known tons of half white and half black kids, a couple with black moms but mostly white moms... one looked entirely black and the rest all looked white and sometimes their nose looks a bit wider than a stereotypical small euro nose but that's it. Blonde hair, blue eyes, you name it from the euro side, they got it.

Answer 4

To my knowledge, mitochondrial DNA wouldn't really affect the things you're talking about, and there's very little mitochondrial DNA compared to the DNA in the 46 chromosomes. Mitochondrial DNA doesn't mix so it mutates at a very slow, measured rate, right back from the African woman who all living humans bear descent from. In the case of attributes such as skin and hair color, the mixing of male and female DNA allows for wider variations to show up, and certain pools of traits to stick around, either through sexual selection, climate adaptation, or chance.

Now with that said, I don't think the issue is that 'non-white' DNA is stronger either. There are four (known) genes that regulate skin color, with eight allelles. This allows 9 possible skin color combinations, all the way from BBBBBBBB (nearly black skin) to bbbbbbbb ('white' skin). Of these combinations, only the two most recessive, white and olive, would be considered 'white.' The others range from light brown to nearly black. For instance, BBBBbbbb is medium brown. If a 'black' and 'white' person were to have a child, and the result was a medium brown-skinned girl, most people would consider the child to be black, even though, genetically, she's inbetween her parents skin color.

My aunt (a blonde, green-eyed woman) married a Malaysian (dark-haired and eyed, relatively light skin) and had 2 kids by him. They both look, to me, largely inbetween. Their hair is dark but the girl's is straight, their facial features remind me of their mother, but I haven't seen their father since I was 6, and their skin is much closer to his than hers. You might, in your own experience, see kids who look more like the mother, but that doesn't mean it holds true everywhere, and you might not be looking at all the traits you could be looking at.

Why don't you ask a geneticist? Here's two sites you can ask on.

Answer 5

I'm not sure, but it's pretty cool when you think of it that way. Heidi Klum has a blonde headed daughter, but I don't know if she is Seal's biological daughter or not. Her boys look mostly black. Maybe it happens more in South American type of people and whites than it would in black/white children. I don't know though.

I know a girls who's mom is white and father is Korean. She looks white and you couldn't ever tell that she was half Korean.

Answer 6

I think, in general, races other than those from European decent seem to be a bit stronger.  I often see this in my students, regardless of which parent is of which race. However  I have seen cases where the child takes on nearly all physical characteristics of one of the races.

This case is amazing:

These are twins.  Though their facial characteristics look very similar, one looks black one looks white.  Both parents are biracial, having one black parents and one white parent.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/people/mixe...

But as far as your theory goes, it is simply ignorant..absolutes always are.

Answer 7

That vanessa girl is stunning... anyway..

My mother is white, my dad black his mum jamaican (very dark) and dad from cuba (latin looking ) and he is really dark

I am mixed and my looks are very fair (considering my dads so dark) with green eyes and very loose curls.

Though physicayl more from my dads side...

I have heard that the female DNA is usally stronger and I think its probly true.

I don't know any latin women (unfortunatly) to comment on how they bring up children.

Answer 8

This hypothesis is most likely flawed. Do you know the parents' appearances and skin tones of every celebrity there? Puerto Ricans could also have fair skin and green/blue eyes. Many Peruvians, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, and Cubans (especially them) can have brown hair and blue eyes. So you're assuming (correct me if I'm wrong) that the Hispanic parents have dark skin but you've never seen them. You can't really make a conclusion unless you check the genetic makeup and geneological trees of those people. Many Hispanics are a mixture of Spaniard/African/indigenous/Asian. So they come in all sorts of colors.

Answer 9

My mother is american and my dad is latino and my coloring is like my mom but if you look at my facial features I look like my dad. I am the contrary to your language though because my mom made sure that I am bilingual. I have noticed this though. Much of my family is mixed because i come from Miami. Most of the people are just how you described.

Answer 10

oh, that is really interesting, although I think mtDNA doesnt really affect us at all, cos mitochondrias have their own DNA and its not really subjected to natural selection. It could have something to do with the gender of the kid, like mothers pass an X always to their kids, fathers pass an X or Y, and maybe something on the Y is weird, cos the Y actually only has 9 genes on it, one for gender. Also females switch off one of their X's early on in development. So really we only use one X. It may be something there, but then again, you need to do more research, cos  people isnt a big enough sample. So, you could try to find more examples, and then we all here at YA could ponder over them.