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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 32831" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>That's something else I'll have to add to my list of interesting things to study. Lethal recessive genes do occur but generally don't last for more than a few hundred years unless there is some other advantage connected (as in sickle-cell). Researchers are even using lethal recessives to wipe out populations of certain pest species, such as the Aussie blowfly. Not sure where that research has gone, I know they were working on it BIG time in the 80s. </p><p></p><p>It's not uncommon for small, isolated pockets of population (biologically speaking) to show some genetic oddities like this. But such diseases are only one or two genes, they are NOT even an observable fraction of the individual's genetic make-up. All we are seeing is the obvious manifestation of a very tiny proportion of the genetic makeup. The rest of our genes are more like everyone else's than perhaps we've ever realised before.</p><p></p><p>If I look at my family and consider the phenotypic variation that is obvious, the range is amazing. Eye colour ranges from brown, through all shades of hazel, to blue. Some are tall, some are short, many are medium. Hair colour ranges from dark brown, to red, to blonde. Some of us are prone to allergies, some are not. Some have fair skin, some have freckles, some of us are dark-skinned. There are other differences more closely related to only a single gene variation here or there, but we all seem very different, yet we are all members of the same family. All siblings with the same two parents.</p><p>When we have a larger family reunion, we can recognise certain family groups by a particular 'thing', such as the shape of the eyes. My great-uncle Fred had wolf-like eyes and all his descendants have the same. My grandmother had similar eyes but more open - we look a lot like Uncle Fred's branch, but not quite. Others had a narrower forehead, or a pointier chin. easy child 2/difficult child 2 looks a lot like one of Uncle Fred's sisters. She even has the same distinctive laugh, I haven't heard it from anyone else since that aunt. easy child 2/difficult child 2 never met that aunt, she died soon after husband & I married.</p><p></p><p>But on the street, if we bumped into each other as individuals, nobody would pick any of us as related. We zoom in on the feature that we see in common, but overall we are exhibiting huge variation. And yet, DNA would show the relationship to be close because we ARE, within our family.</p><p></p><p>When comparing differences between one group or another, or once rave and another, we sometimes zoom in on something like Tay-Sachs because it does seem fairly exclusive to one main group.</p><p>But it's not completely exclusive. Also, not every member of that group has the gene. There is a correlation between having Tay-Sachs and being Jewish, but it's not a 100% correlation simply because humanity is a spectrum. (and also, correlation doesn't mean it's causative, either - a mistake often made in the early days of the study of race, when they tried to explain certain physical features in skull shape as proof of and reason for the lower qualities and lack of intelligence of certain groups).</p><p></p><p>Vive la différence!</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 32831, member: 1991"] That's something else I'll have to add to my list of interesting things to study. Lethal recessive genes do occur but generally don't last for more than a few hundred years unless there is some other advantage connected (as in sickle-cell). Researchers are even using lethal recessives to wipe out populations of certain pest species, such as the Aussie blowfly. Not sure where that research has gone, I know they were working on it BIG time in the 80s. It's not uncommon for small, isolated pockets of population (biologically speaking) to show some genetic oddities like this. But such diseases are only one or two genes, they are NOT even an observable fraction of the individual's genetic make-up. All we are seeing is the obvious manifestation of a very tiny proportion of the genetic makeup. The rest of our genes are more like everyone else's than perhaps we've ever realised before. If I look at my family and consider the phenotypic variation that is obvious, the range is amazing. Eye colour ranges from brown, through all shades of hazel, to blue. Some are tall, some are short, many are medium. Hair colour ranges from dark brown, to red, to blonde. Some of us are prone to allergies, some are not. Some have fair skin, some have freckles, some of us are dark-skinned. There are other differences more closely related to only a single gene variation here or there, but we all seem very different, yet we are all members of the same family. All siblings with the same two parents. When we have a larger family reunion, we can recognise certain family groups by a particular 'thing', such as the shape of the eyes. My great-uncle Fred had wolf-like eyes and all his descendants have the same. My grandmother had similar eyes but more open - we look a lot like Uncle Fred's branch, but not quite. Others had a narrower forehead, or a pointier chin. easy child 2/difficult child 2 looks a lot like one of Uncle Fred's sisters. She even has the same distinctive laugh, I haven't heard it from anyone else since that aunt. easy child 2/difficult child 2 never met that aunt, she died soon after husband & I married. But on the street, if we bumped into each other as individuals, nobody would pick any of us as related. We zoom in on the feature that we see in common, but overall we are exhibiting huge variation. And yet, DNA would show the relationship to be close because we ARE, within our family. When comparing differences between one group or another, or once rave and another, we sometimes zoom in on something like Tay-Sachs because it does seem fairly exclusive to one main group. But it's not completely exclusive. Also, not every member of that group has the gene. There is a correlation between having Tay-Sachs and being Jewish, but it's not a 100% correlation simply because humanity is a spectrum. (and also, correlation doesn't mean it's causative, either - a mistake often made in the early days of the study of race, when they tried to explain certain physical features in skull shape as proof of and reason for the lower qualities and lack of intelligence of certain groups). Vive la différence! Marg [/QUOTE]
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