How is red hair passed on genetically? Is it a dominant or recessive type?
Only 1 in 200 people have red hair.People wonder if their children will be in that group.
We know a lot about red hair, but there are still some details that need to be figured out.We can get into more complex details after we start with a mostly-true answer.
You inherit genetic information from your parents.Your genetic information will be passed on to your children.
Small pieces of your genetic information are called genes.Your hair color is included in the instructions to make you who you are.Alleles are different versions of genes.
Imagine that there is a single gene that controls hair color.The brown hair, blonde hair and red hair all have different alleles of this gene.You have brown hair if you have the brown allele of the gene.You have blonde hair if you have the blond allele.You have red hair if you have the red allele.
You don't have to have all of the genes for each one.You have at least one from your parents.They could both be for the same hair color.
It may seem obvious, but if you have two brown hair alleles, you will be brown.But what if you have both brown and blonde genes?Or blonde plus red?
Brown hair is stronger than the other colors.To have brown hair, you only need one brown allele.It is a trait that dominates.
Blonde or red hair is not as strong as brown.If you want to have blonde hair, both of you need to be blonde.It's the same for red hair.These are different from each other.
The genes for blonde and red hair are the same.People with strawberry blonde hair have a genetic condition.
If you put it all together, you get: brown hair, brown DNA, red hair and blonde hair.
Your child will only have red hair if both parents give you two pieces of "red hair" DNA.
If you don't have red hair, you can still pass it on to your child.If you have red hair, you could carry instructions for hiding it in your genes.Someone who has red hair is called a carrier.
It is hard to know if you are a carrier since you don't have red hair.It is possible that you have hidden redhead genes in your family.
2.One parent has red hair and the other doesn't, but they both have the same risk of having a redheaded child.
3.If you and your partner both have red hair, you have a 25% chance of having a redheaded child.
The way hair colors are passed down matches my explanation.The story is not easy to understand.The "rules" are often broken in genetics.
Your hair gets its color from a substance called melanin.There are two types of melanin in your hair.
Eumelanin is a brown color.It causes skin tanning by coloring hair and skin shades of brown.pheomelanin is present in the lips, nipples and genitals.
Humans have small amounts of pheomelanin in their hair.The brown color drowns out the red color if there is a lot of eumelanin.If someone has little to no eumelanin, their hair is red.Fair skin is caused by the lack of eumelanin.
There are different shades of red hair.Each redheaded person has a combination of eumelanin and pheomelanin.
How much of your body is made of melanin?Different genes work together to give you your hair and skin color.
Different genes work together to make skin and hair color.There are many genes that affect hair and skin color.We have more to discover.
As children get older, hormones can cause blonde hair to get darker.Stress, sunlight, smoking, and a poor diet are some of the factors that can cause hair color to fade.
Even if two people have the same combination of genes, they might have different hair colors.
Hair color genetics is not easy to understand.There are a lot of factors that affect hair color.Scientists are still looking into the genetics of hair color, so I am sure we will have more definite answers in the near future.
Several articles about red hair have been posted over the years.