Passing your Genes on to your kids ?

[Tatfree]

Has there been any studies showing if your Current genes will pass on to your future kids or do the Genes you where born with will be passed on ?
I'm aware that Genese can skip generations.

Example:
At the Age pf 5 yrs old your over weight
Age 10 your over weight
Age 30 your over weight with a bodyfat of 30%
Age 33 your ripped to shreds from propper diet and exercise( 4.5% bodyfat ).You did this 100% natural with no drugs involved.

You have the kid at Age 33.

For the record I have never been overwieght, I was just curious how it all works in Male or Females ?

[Old-Time-Lifter]

Has there been any studies showing if your Current genes will pass on to your future kids or do the Genes you where born with will be passed on ?
I'm aware that Genese can skip generations.

Example:
At the Age pf 5 yrs old your over weight
Age 10 your over weight
Age 30 your over weight with a bodyfat of 30%
Age 33 your ripped to shreds from propper diet and exercise( 4.5% bodyfat ).You did this 100% natural with no drugs involved.

You have the kid at Age 33.

For the record I have never been overwieght, I was just curious how it all works in Male or Females ?

I hate to break it to you but your current genes ARE the genes you were born with. If you get in shape and are ripped or if you're a fat slob sitting on the couch "YOU" are still passing on the same genetic traits to your children. Now here's the catch were you fat as a kid because you sat on your butt and ate chips and pop? Or were you a normal kid who ate decent enough and was active and you were still a tub?

Again, you were destine to pass on the same genetics to your kids from the day you were born you can work out until you are bigger than Arnold but you won't change your genetic make up one bit.

[survivorman]

Yeah as I understand it there is nothing you can do to change your genes AFAIK but this doesn't mean he will be like you or your partner infact he won't be in many ways ofcourse. Traits from many generations ago can resurface e.g. If you are white and your partner is white but your grandad x10(or even longer ago) was black(or visa verca) then your kid could look fully black and not look anyhing like either of you. It's an extreme example but it's happened more than a few times.

Also you kid will be born with completly inique gene's which no one else will have or had.

[Toronto-Bruce_old]

I've worked in the public relations department of a major medical centre that does a lot of genetic research. In the PR dept., we worked to get media coverage of research being done.

As other posters have written correctly, you're born with your genetic map. Your genes, logically, are a combination of those from your parents, and theirs from their parents before them, and so on.

It means there are many genetic predispositions toward various diseases and conditions that you cannot escape. But, you can lead a life that doesn't add voluntarily risk factors to those genetic predispositions.

As a private pilot, I have to live with this reality when getting my aviation medical certificate renewed every 2 yrs. Part of the aviation med. exam asks about the health of your siblings and parents. Because--while general medicine isn't advanced enough to take genetics into account-- doctors look at heredity.

My father had 2 heart attacks in his 50s and two strokes in his 70s and 80s. My eldest brother, now in his early 60s, has type-2 diabetes.

It helps me to keep my licence to tell the examiners that I work out 5 days a week, take care about what I eat, do not smoke or drink to excess. All of which weigh in the good against the heart problems in my family background. I also had to explain that my brother's diabetes is a result of his being a long distance truck driver, so eating in greasy spoons and getting little excercise. There is no diabetes in my family at all, otherwise.

Without that information in their hands, the medical examiners probably wouldn't grant me a pilot's licence.

The genetics researchers see a day not too far in the future where a newborn can be given a genetics test that will -- providing there are similar genetics tests on file for earlier generations of the family on file -- be able to say with even more accuracy "this baby has an XX chance of developing heart disease in his 40s" or similar for cancer or other afflications that are passed on genetically. That will give parents an idea from the start about the future of their children.

[GuyJin]

The genes you were born with are those that will be passed on to your children along with the genetic blueprint that your wife/husband has. And the "mixing" of those genes will provide your child/children with something that is very unique. In many cases, the child will look like a carbon copy of the father/mother; in many other cases, the offspring will look like a combination of the parents, or have traits/characteristics of both, or of the ancestors on either side. You just don't know what the child/children will look like and how they'll react to diet/exercise/lack of both...whatever the genes dictate they'll look like and inherit that is what will be. But the genes they're given while gestating are those--for better or worse--that they'll have to live with.

However, as has been said before, you can overcome--in part--any "bad" genes such as high cholesterol/high blood pressure/heart disease by eating well and exercising. After that, there really isn't a whole lot you can do about it. It has been said that some diseases often "skip" a generation--I don't know if there's any truth in that or not. In my case and my wife's case, cancer runs on both sides of our families--I try not to eat the wrong stuff, don't smoke or do drugs and neither does my wife so what will be will be, and I can only hope that our children will lead the best lifestyle they can. After that, Mother Nature will take over.

[-=FLEX=-]

I hate to break it to you but your current genes ARE the genes you were born with.

x2

What in the world made you think that working out and getting in shape changed your genes???

-=FLEX=-

[Tatfree]

I just figured that's how evolution works. You get a few generations taking very good care of themselves and you will have a better chance at the offspring developing good.

Get a few generations of Obese parents and the baby may develope differantly.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

Yeah as I understand it there is nothing you can do to change your genes AFAIK but this doesn't mean he will be like you or your partner infact he won't be in many ways ofcourse. Traits from many generations ago can resurface e.g. If you are white and your partner is white but your grandad x10(or even longer ago) was black(or visa verca) then your kid could look fully black and not look anyhing like either of you. It's an extreme example but it's happened more than a few times.

Also you kid will be born with completly inique gene's which no one else will have or had.

Well as far as to the number of alleles coding for skin color last I knew we didn't know if it was 5 or 500, but to say that a pair of apparently white parents with a black ancestor 10 generations back would ever have a 'fully black' child seems beyond far fetched to me. To be fully black in appearance would necessitate the child having dark skin, a broad nose, kinky hair, dark eyes, etc. Since most if not all of these traits are in turn multiple allele traits the likely hood of this happening versus the neighbor jumping the fence are well ridiculously small.

Also genes that 'resurface' (actually they are there all along they just are not being expressed for one reason or another) are generally recessive traits, and it does appear that dark skin color is dominant. Plus, even if you had a recessive alelle coding for dark skin color (but again darker skin seems to be dominant NOT recessive) it would have to be present in BOTH parents.

I will add that NOBODY is born with unique genes, it's the combination that is unique.(with the obvious exception of identical twins) It's impossible for you to be born with any genes that weren't already present in either your mother or your father. (interestingly enough all of us are more genetically influenced by our mothers, especially us men)

[Old-Time-Lifter]

I just figured that's how evolution works. You get a few generations taking very good care of themselves and you will have a better chance at the offspring developing good.

Get a few generations of Obese parents and the baby may develope differantly.

Generally, fat parents have fat kids because of environment NOT genetics. You can cut the tails off of mice for a million generations and you'll never end up with genetically tail-less mice unless there is a mutation along the way. (and that mutation would have had nothing to do with you cutting the tails off or not)

[GuyJin]

Roy, when I wrote "unique" I didn't mean it in the "superhuman" or "mutant/genius" way; I simply meant it in the sense that we are all "unique" in our own way as to what we will become and do with our lives. Apologies if I gave the wrong impression.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

Roy, when I wrote "unique" I didn't mean it in the "superhuman" or "mutant/genius" way; I simply meant it in the sense that we are all "unique" in our own way as to what we will become and do with our lives. Apologies if I gave the wrong impression.

I actually wasn't replying to your comment, I didn't see anything wrong with it to be honest. Our individual genetic make up is certainly unique, it would be very difficult to imagine the exact combination of all the multitude of alelles in 2 individuals who were not identical twins.

Rather I was remarking to this comment by survivorman: "Also you kid will be born with completly inique gene's which no one else will have or had."

I think we both agree that statement is not accurate. (and not just in spelling)

Blessings,
Roy

[RetBodyBuilder]

Though I knew that genes get passed on, I must say you guys are awesome as this thread scientifically explained it...that was excellent education. Good reading....and I am glad you asked Tatfree.

[Bando]

In many cases, the child will look like a carbon copy of the father/mother; in many other cases, the offspring will look like a combination of the parents, or have traits/characteristics of both

And not always the way you wish it would it go, my son has my wife's long delicate fingers and my daughter has my meaty little sausage fingers.

Generally, fat parents have fat kids because of environment NOT genetics.

Indeed. The Bible says "train up a child in the way he should go," for a book so inclined to lineage, it's telling that even in Biblical times the parents influence is regarded so highly.

[GuyJin]

And not always the way you wish it would it go, my son has my wife's long delicate fingers and my daughter has my meaty little sausage fingers.

----------------

Yeah, I know what you mean. Considering that my wife is Japanese and I'm white, the children we have are naturally carrying traits from both of us. When my first son was born, I looked at his feet and hands right away; same shaped feet--very broad and with a high arch--and small hands and slender fingers like mine; I inherited good feet from my father and my mother's hands. Go figure. When my second son came along, same thing: Good feet and small hands. Oddly enough, the older boy looks like me--infinitely better-looking (and thank goodness for that!) while my little one actually looks like my father when he was a boy. Mother Nature sure has a sense of humor at times...

Whatever; I love them both and even though it's an endless source of irritation to my wife that they don't look like her at all, they ARE our children, for better or worse. Now it's our job to help make them "better."

[Bando]

----------------

Yeah, I know what you mean. Considering that my wife is Japanese and I'm white, the children we have are naturally carrying traits from both of us. When my first son was born, I looked at his feet and hands right away; same shaped feet--very broad and with a high arch--and small hands and slender fingers like mine; I inherited good feet from my father and my mother's hands. Go figure. When my second son came along, same thing: Good feet and small hands. Oddly enough, the older boy looks like me--infinitely better-looking (and thank goodness for that!) while my little one actually looks like my father when he was a boy. Mother Nature sure has a sense of humor at times...

Whatever; I love them both and even though it's an endless source of irritation to my wife that they don't look like her at all, they ARE our children, for better or worse. Now it's our job to help make them "better."

It'll all work out in the end. These fat little fingers have driven a tractor trailer, played an eagles song on stage, solved countless computer problems, installed an exhaust, planted a garden, carried a parent's headstone and pushed and pulled endless tons of iron.

It's funny that my daughter is always the one to help me change a tire, fix the furnace, saw down a tree. When airing up bike tires the other day she helped with the 1st and insisted on doing the rest herself, along with my hands I must have passed the ability and desire to use them on to her.

[survivorman]

Well as far as to the number of alleles coding for skin color last I knew we didn't know if it was 5 or 500, but to say that a pair of apparently white parents with a black ancestor 10 generations back would ever have a 'fully black' child seems beyond far fetched to me. To be fully black in appearance would necessitate the child having dark skin, a broad nose, kinky hair, dark eyes, etc. Since most if not all of these traits are in turn multiple allele traits the likely hood of this happening versus the neighbor jumping the fence are well (1)ridiculously small.

Also genes that 'resurface' (actually they are there all along they just are not being expressed for one reason or another) are generally recessive traits, and it does appear that dark skin color is dominant. Plus, even if you had a recessive alelle coding for dark skin color (but again darker skin seems to be dominant NOT recessive) it would have to be present in BOTH parents.

(2)I will add that NOBODY is born with unique genes, it's the combination that is unique.(with the obvious exception of identical twins) It's impossible for you to be born with any genes that weren't already present in either your mother or your father. (interestingly enough all of us are more genetically influenced by our mothers, especially us men)

(1)ridiculously small. ///

But not impossible, infact I have read in news papers on more than one occasion that this has happened and these babies did not appear to be mixed race.

(2) I will add that NOBODY is born with unique genes, it's the combination that is unique. /// So if we suposedly evolved from monkey's although we share what 98% genome with them then where did the new ones come from ? I.E. the 2% we don't share.

Again I am no scientist ofc just wondering, but if people are born with missing gene's(lost somehow) could anyone be born with extra genes? (where would they come from?) If not then in THEORY in Trillions of years as a race of humans we could have alot less genes, because logically if we can lose genes but not gain any then eventually we wouldn't have enough gene's to er 'carry on'.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

(1)ridiculously small. ///

But not impossible, infact I have read in news papers on more than one occasion that this has happened and these babies did not appear to be mixed race.

(2) I will add that NOBODY is born with unique genes, it's the combination that is unique. /// So if we suposedly evolved from monkey's although we share what 98% genome with them then where did the new ones come from ? I.E. the 2% we don't share.

Again I am no scientist ofc just wondering, but if people are born with missing gene's(lost somehow) could anyone be born with extra genes? (where would they come from?) If not then in THEORY in Trillions of years as a race of humans we could have alot less genes, because logically if we can lose genes but not gain any then eventually we wouldn't have enough gene's to er 'carry on'.

Please provide just one link to an article showing an apparently "fully black" infant born to two white parents who are multiple generations removed from a "fully black" ancestor. I won't hold my breath, I'm 50 years old and I've never heard of one.

Certainly the difference between humans and apes (or flat worms for that matter) is the result of mutations, but these occur over many many generations and actually most of the variation between us (humans and apes) is the result of genes being turned off or turned on. (this is why you can get a child born with a tail for instant, the gene is there in all of us but it's normally not expressed) Also genes can change from being used to do one thing into doing another thing, but that's complicated and it's too late to dive into that. As for "trillions" the earth is only approximately 5 "billion" years old and modern humans (homo sapien sapien) have been around for less than a quarter of a million years. As to the rest of your comments that will have to wait, it's late and I don't feel inclined to go to the length needed to explain things to you.

Later........

[Tyrbolift]

x2

What in the world made you think that working out and getting in shape changed your genes???

-=FLEX=-

Cause after he lost all that weight, his genes no longer fit. He had to buy new smaller ones.

[Yarzospatflute]

But not impossible, infact I have read in news papers on more than one occasion that this has happened and these babies did not appear to be mixed race.

I'd like to see those links, too. I think it's more likely that someone was unfaithful and lied about it.

Again I am no scientist ofc just wondering, but if people are born with missing gene's(lost somehow) could anyone be born with extra genes? (where would they come from?) If not then in THEORY in Trillions of years as a race of humans we could have alot less genes, because logically if we can lose genes but not gain any then eventually we wouldn't have enough gene's to er 'carry on'.

Sometimes people are born with an extra chromosome. (A chromosome is basically a string of your DNA that has a bunch of genes in it.) That's what happens to someone who has Down's Syndrome. When someone is born with extra stuff it's not a good thing. And the universe is 13.75 billion years old, the earth is only 4.6 billion years old, and humans have been around for only a couple hundred thousand years.

[BestYearEver]

Just to complicate things a bit consider epigenetics -- that environment can "turn on" genetic expression. We just don't know what the triggers are.

An example of this might be gut bacteria -- I have read several articles reporting that obese people have a different mix than lean people. Sterile mice that are given the gut bacteria profile of obese people become overweight. It's very plausible that children born to obese and/or overweight parents not only inherit genes that make weight gain more likely and learn bad eating habits, but they acquire the type of intestinal flora that promotes weight gain.

It seems like the more scientists learn, the more complexities are revealed. Since there are so many variables, I guess all we can do is try to instill good habits in our kids -- encourage awareness of calories in/out, eating a variety of healthy foods, being physically active every day.

[Tyrbolift]

Just to complicate things a bit consider epigenetics -- that environment can "turn on" genetic expression. We just don't know what the triggers are.

An example of this might be gut bacteria -- I have read several articles reporting that obese people have a different mix than lean people. Sterile mice that are given the gut bacteria profile of obese people become overweight. It's very plausible that children born to obese and/or overweight parents not only inherit genes that make weight gain more likely and learn bad eating habits, but they acquire the type of intestinal flora that promotes weight gain.

It seems like the more scientists learn, the more complexities are revealed. Since there are so many variables, I guess all we can do is try to instill good habits in our kids -- encourage awareness of calories in/out, eating a variety of healthy foods, being physically active every day.

I'll have to remember that term next time someone complains that I stunk up the bathroom.

"No, honey, that's just my intestinal flora!"

[BestYearEver]

Haha -- sounds like you're doing a good job "passing" your flora onto your family members!

[survivorman]

Please provide just one link to an article showing an apparently "fully black" infant born to two white parents who are multiple generations removed from a "fully black" ancestor. I won't hold my breath, I'm 50 years old and I've never heard of one.

http://www.essence.com/entertainment...oken_by_co.php If I seen this woman walking down the street without knowing her I would say she was 'fully black' and according to that article its seems people in the real world would agree with me. (btw it took me like 5 seconds to find that).

Also i'd like to throw this into the mix and turn it on its head black people with white kids

http://thestudyofracialism.org/about1567.html Pretty interesting stuff don't ya think?

Certainly the difference between humans and apes (or flat worms for that matter) is the result of mutations, but these occur over many many generations ........

BUT they do still occur, ergo one could be born with a new mutation. The question is IF a new mutation is classed as a 'new' gene? If so then it is possible to be born with a new gene, albeit unlikely.

and actually most

But not all.

of the variation between us (humans and apes) is the result of genes being turned off or turned on. (this is why you can get a child born with a tail for instant, the gene is there in all of us but it's normally not expressed) Also genes can change from being used to do one thing into doing another thing, but that's complicated and it's too late to dive into that.

As for "trillions" the earth is only approximately 5 "billion" years old and modern humans (homo sapien sapien) have been around for less than a quarter of a million years. As to the rest of your comments that will have to wait, it's late and I don't feel inclined to go to the length needed to explain things to you.

Later........

Again I am no scientist ofc just wondering, but if people are born with missing gene's(lost somehow) could anyone be born with extra genes? (where would they come from?) If not then in THEORY in Trillions of years as a race of humans we could have alot less genes, because logically if we can lose genes but not gain any then eventually we wouldn't have enough gene's to er 'carry on'.

Yea I know scientist think they have calculated correctly about how old the universe is 13.7 billion years to be precise, you either didn't read the last bit of my post correctly or have misunderstood what I was implying as I was talking about what the FUTURE would be like if no 'new' gene's were introduced/created and it was meant to be tongue in cheeck as it is preposterous to guess what would happen in that time scale. I apologise for my unwitting subtlety.

P.S. Please forgive my spelling as I am lazy when it comes to unessential forum disscusions.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

Yeah as I understand it there is nothing you can do to change your genes AFAIK but this doesn't mean he will be like you or your partner infact he won't be in many ways ofcourse. Traits from many generations ago can resurface e.g. If you are white and your partner is white but your grandad x10(or even longer ago) was black(or visa verca) then your kid could look fully black and not look anyhing like either of you. It's an extreme example but it's happened more than a few times.

Also you kid will be born with completly inique gene's which no one else will have or had.

Well, it seems you've backed off from your original statement that the kids would have "completely unique genes". It is true the every once in a VERY VERY great while a child could be born (most would die in the womb or never implant to begin with) with a mutated gene. (but I would point out that most of these mutations actually took place in the parents germ cells and not in the child so the gene still in effect came from the parent)

As far as the white children born to black parents, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often (though it certainly will become more common as the blending of the races continues which I actually think is just fine) since many of the members of the black population have white ancestors.

Even though it's not PC, I see no mention of any genetic testing having been done on Sandra Laing so I see no reason to believe she is the product of a recessive gene but rather her mother slipping out. If a test has been done than I'd love to see it as I'd have to guess that the odds of this being legit are in the range of winning the powerball on two consecutive drawings. If the woman hasn't submitted to a test yet, I doubt she ever will now since she has had an actually movie made about her life. (please note though I didn't say it's impossible, just that it's much much much (x10 million or so) more likely that momma messed around on dad)

Oh and BestYearEver is right it gets very, very complicated the environment can make a gene be expressed though this would have to generally occur in the womb. Also there are things in the womb that are not genetic that will greatly influence how we develop and what we become.