How often do you scold your child: “What a fool you are! All in the father!”? Or praise: “What a clever girl you are! Just like mom!”? Jokes aside, and geneticists really agree that children inherit intelligence more from mom than from dad. A recent study confirms this with absolute certainty.
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So What Traits Do Children Inherit From Their Parents
According to scientists, intelligence genes are associated with the X chromosome, and women have as many as two of them, which means that a mother is twice as likely to pass on her intellectual inclinations to her baby.
This does not mean that nothing will fall from the intellectual abilities of the father to the child. The study suggests that maternal cells have more influence on cognitive functions (memory, thinking, speech, perception) than paternal ones, but paternal ones have more influence on the limbic system of the brain (mood, instincts, empathy, etc.).
To date, scientists know quite a lot of interesting details about genetic transmission. But we will not delve into the terminology and explanation of the dominant and recessive mechanisms of genes, alleles and mutations, but will limit ourselves to the most interesting - a list of what children are more likely to receive from their mothers and what they receive from their fathers.
Here is a list of what mothers pass on to their kids more frequently than fathers.
1. Features of sleep
A study published in the journal Sleep Medicine states that if a mother has sleep problems (difficulty falling asleep, insomnia), then the baby is more likely to have the same problems.
If the father cannot fall asleep for a long time, often wakes up at night, tossing and turning, then you can literally sleep peacefully - the child, as a rule, does not inherit sleep disorders from the father.
2. Colourblindness
Color blindness, or color vision deficiency, means that the child cannot distinguish certain colors or shades. Color blindness is much more common in boys than in girls.
It is transmitted along the X chromosome from the mother, and the mother-carrier of the mutation herself can distinguish colors like an ordinary person. In order for a girl to begin to suffer from color blindness, both parents must be carriers of a mutation on the X chromosome.
3. Features of ageing
If your mom looks good in old age, then you are lucky, because there is almost a hundred percent chance that you will also look good when you get old.
Features of the skin, its type and rate of ageing, the tendency to wrinkles, flabbiness - all this is passed on to her children by a mother.
4. Tongue curl
A funny feature that some people have - the ability to twist the tongue into a tube - is passed on to children from mothers.
If the mother knows how to twist different tricks with her tongue, then the children will be, if the father knows how, but the mother does not, then most likely the children will not have this “talent”.
5. Dimples on the cheeks
Not all people have dimples on their cheeks. But those sweet babies who were born with such charm on their cheeks can thank their mothers for them.
It is not clear what miracles mother's genetics does, but it is mothers who turn simple cheeks into charming dimpled cheeks.
And here is a list of what fathers genetically pass on to their children much more often than mothers.
1. Growth
There are a number of formulas to predict how tall your little boy (or girl) will be in adulthood, but according to geneticists, the most accurate indicator of how tall your baby will be will be his father's height.
Tall dads mostly produce tall boys. The height of the mother, of course, will also affect the genetics of the son if the mother is below average height. However, in general, the higher the father, the higher the son.
2. Dental health
In most cases, it is daddy's genetics that are to blame for the fact that children have bad teeth. This is another one of those complex formulas that scientists still cannot fully figure out, but if mom has dazzling white even teeth that did not know caries, and dad has crooked, yellow and caries-prone teeth, then the likelihood of bad teeth in a child becomes very high! You can save money for a dentist from birth.
3. Dimples on the chin
If the dimples on the cheeks are passed on to their children by mothers, then the dimple on the chin is passed on to the child by the father.
If a dad has such a dimple, then most likely, his son or daughter will also have it. Sometimes, if the mother's genes are stronger, the chances of developing a chin dimple become 50/50.
It happens that one child has a dimple, and the other does not. But if both mom and dad have dimples, then the children are guaranteed the same family sign.
4. How easily do you gain weight
A study published in Nature Communications found that the amount of fat you store in yourself, especially around your organs, is determined in part by genes passed on to you by your dad.
However, it's not worth getting upset. You just need to be prepared for the fact that if your dad is large, then persistent sports will help you to keep your height in width. Also, be sure to warn your kids...
5. Eye color
The genes for brown eyes are dominant over the genes for other colors. And therefore, if one of the spouses has blue eyes, and the other has brown eyes, then it is highly likely that brown ones will “win”.
But! Dad's eye color is still more important. If dad has brown eyes, then there is almost 100% that the child will have brown eyes.
And if mom has brown eyes, and dad has green, for example, then the chances of a brown-eyed baby are reduced. The recessive greens can easily win, simply because they are daddy's.
About hair color
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| Designations in the table: male - male female - female ebony - black hair color mahogany - chestnut hair color oak - light hazel hair color honey - honey, reddish hair color swedish blonde - light blond. |
There is a strong opinion that children inherit the color and texture of hair either from mom or dad. But in fact, the type and color of the hair of the unborn child is not so easy to predict. It may well be that a dark-haired couple will have a blond-haired child! Just don’t frown suspiciously and look sideways at your neighbour in this case, take a look out of curiosity at this hair color inheritance plate, from which it becomes immediately clear that hair is the result of a complex interaction not only of the genes of mom and dad, but also their distant ancestors.
Recently, among geneticists, the hypothesis has been heard more often that the child in most cases inherits the hair of his maternal grandfather. But this is not a particularly reliable prediction. Because we should not forget about the redheads. If dad turned out to be red, then his genetics will definitely overpower a fair-haired or blond mom.
And even the genetics of a burning brunette can be overpowered, because the genes of redheads are quite strong. But two non-red parents will not have a red-haired child, alas, no matter how much you hope for your grandmothers or great-grandfathers.
In fact, there are many more genetic features that we inherit from moms or dads. This list is constantly updated, and we will return to this topic. Stay with us!