What is the scientific term for genes that skip generations?

[PleasantlyPlain]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious about gene skipping here. Say I randomly inherited a trait that my grandfather had, but not necessarily my mother or my sister, etc? Or say I inherited this trait to a much larger degree than my mother or sister?

Or for another, perhaps more extreme example (which I have heard of happening), what about a child that for some odd reason does not resemble either physically and/or mentally either of its parents, but is almost a carbon copy of one of their great, great grandparents? Is there a name for this phenomenon?

Also, I have heard that it is usually recessive genes that do this. I am thinking it would have to be.

[Tuck]

Nice post. I have been wondering this same thing myself. I am fascinated with genes and how skip generations and such. Not to mention the mixing of genes from 32 or more different lines! How in the world can you have all of these genes but it appears that most people often get the genes of the parents or grandparents. I guess what I'm trying to say is, is it possible to acquire the gene of a GGGGGGG Grandparent that no one else in your family has had sine that GGGGGGG Grandparent?

A perfect example from your post is the Hank Williams family. hank Williams Jr. in most regards does not resemble his dad, Hank Williams. He doesn't look like him, his voice is not the same, Hank Sr. was tall and skinny were as Hank Jr. is pretty stocky. However, Hank Jr's son, Hank Williams III, is the spitting image of Hank Williams! He is tall and skinny, he looks like him, his voice sounds just like Hank Sr., its really amazing how Hank Sr.'s genes skipped Hank Jr. but came back out in Hank the 3rd.

[Evi]

Recessive genes?

[Surreal]

atavism? lol

[PleasantlyPlain]

atavism? lol

If what I read about it is correct, that sounds about right.

By the way, I love your quote.

[PleasantlyPlain]

Nice post. I have been wondering this same thing myself. I am fascinated with genes and how skip generations and such. Not to mention the mixing of genes from 32 or more different lines! How in the world can you have all of these genes but it appears that most people often get the genes of the parents or grandparents. I guess what I'm trying to say is, is it possible to acquire the gene of a GGGGGGG Grandparent that no one else in your family has had sine that GGGGGGG Grandparent?

A perfect example from your post is the Hank Williams family. hank Williams Jr. in most regards does not resemble his dad, Hank Williams. He doesn't look like him, his voice is not the same, Hank Sr. was tall and skinny were as Hank Jr. is pretty stocky. However, Hank Jr's son, Hank Williams III, is the spitting image of Hank Williams! He is tall and skinny, he looks like him, his voice sounds just like Hank Sr., its really amazing how Hank Sr.'s genes skipped Hank Jr. but came back out in Hank the 3rd.


I guess what I'm trying to say is, is it possible to acquire the gene of a GGGGGGG Grandparent that no one else in your family has had sine that GGGGGGG Grandparent?

That's a really interesting question. That's pretty much what I was alluding to as well. For the most part, if my understanding is correct, children tend to inherit traits straight from their parents. I don't know much about the process of how genes are passed on, or the genetic coding of an individual, but I do remember learning something about how we can carry certain genes that are not necessarily part of our own personal make up. I could be misinformed, or interpreting things wrongly though.

[Unome]

Recessive genes?
Recessive or Latent, genes… they stay "hidden" because Environmental attributes turn genes "on" or "off". The Recessives ones are "off".

[Stygian Cellarius]

b=recessive allele for blue eyes
B=dominant allele for brown eyes

Eye colors: Bb, bB, BB, bb

If any dominant "B" allele pairs up with either another "B" or a "b", the eyes will be brown. It will mask the recessive allele. In order for the recessive allele to find expression, it must pair up with another recessive allele.

This is how it works using a paternal lineage as an example (in bold):

Great Great Grandfather: bb
Great Great Grandmother: BB

Great Grandfather: bB (no chance at all of inheriting blue eyes because he was guaranteed to inherit a "B")
Great Grandmother: BB

Grandfather: bB (0% chance again)
Grandmother: bB

Father: bB (he had a 25% chance of inheriting "bb", but happened to get a "B" from one of his parents)
Mother: bB

Johnny: bb (he lucked out even though he had only a 25% chance like his father)

See, the recessive allele is preserved in an unbroken line of descent from GGF to Johnny, but must wait until an individual inherits TWO "b's" to find expression.

In reality, eye color is a bit more complex, but that's how it works in simplified form.

[warwick]

one answer from Stanford:

"variable penetrance"

1. Environment
2. Modifier Genes

example:

appearance of a feature like a cleft chin is dependent on two genes, the modifier gene and the cleft gene itself. If both copies of the modifier gene lead to no cleft chin, then the cleft chin gene won't matter -- it will be silenced. If the modifier gene lets you have a cleft chin, then you still need to have a working copy of the cleft chin gene.
http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=47

[Tuck]

That's a really interesting question. That's pretty much what I was alluding to as well. For the most part, if my understanding is correct, children tend to inherit traits straight from their parents. I don't know much about the process of how genes are passed on, or the genetic coding of an individual, but I do remember learning something about how we can carry certain genes that are not necessarily part of our own personal make up. I could be misinformed, or interpreting things wrongly though.

I do know that some genes skip generations, eye color is the perfect example. That is why I wonder about the genes of your GGGGGgranparent, those exact genes were inherited by his/her child, but then that child passed their gene pool to their child and etc, thus in actuality the same genes are constantly passed down, that is how I see it anyway. In other words, if you mostly inherit the genes of your parents because their closest to you biologically.....then your parents would have received those same genes from their parents because their parents were the closest to them and on and on. However, the difference is in each generation their is anew set of genes because one more additional person (one of your parents) has been added to the mix.

[EliasAlucard]

atavism? lolAtavism is sort of correct but it's used for far older traits, like pre-homo sapiens or pre-mammal traits that just pop up.