Like Mother, like baby! Photo from freedigitalphotos.net. |
Our genes are encoded in our DNA, which is coiled and tightly packed into dense little chromosomes. Most of our cells contain 23 different pairs of chromosomes (for a total of 46), and one from each pair comes from each parent. One of those pairs is the sex chromosomes. Individuals with two X sex chromosomes are genetically females and individuals with an X and a Y sex chromosome are genetically male. Because genetic males are the only ones with Y chromosomes, all Y chromosomes are inherited from dad. But compared to X chromosomes, Y chromosomes are piddly little things that don’t contain as many genes. So if you’re a guy, you already have more genes from mom than from dad.
In addition to our 46 chromosomes that we keep in the nucleus of each cell, we also have a tiny set of genes in another cell structure, the mitochondria. This mitochondrial DNA is only inherited from the mother, so regardless of whether you are XX or XY, you have a few more genes from mom than from dad.
Mom gives us more genes, and has more input in determining how active each gene is. In the end, we are who we are in large part because of our moms.
So Mom, this is for you:
Happy (early) Mother’s Day!
Want to know more? Check these out:
1. BERNARDO, J. (1996). Maternal Effects in Animal Ecology Integrative and Comparative Biology, 36 (2), 83-105 DOI: 10.1093/icb/36.2.83
2. Wolf, J., & Wade, M.J. (2009). What are maternal effects (and what are they not)? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 364, 1107-1115
I LOVED this! From many years of teaching, I am now a pre-service teacher educator and researcher into science education, with a passion for biology and genetics in particular. My recent research is into what children aged 10-12 know about genes and DNA (quite a lot more than you might expect) and where they learned it (a lot from the mass media, especially TV crime shows). This article succinctly explains what I'd prefer they knew about genes and DNA! And as a folk muso from way back I really loved the song, well found! I'm not much of a social media person yet but I have submitted an opinion piece to The Conversation so that might be up soon if you are interested.
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