Like mom or dad? Some cells randomly express one parent's version of a gene over the other
Monday, February 24, 2014 - 13:20
in Biology & Nature
We are a product of our parents. Maybe you have your mother's large, dark eyes, and you inherited your father's infectious smile. Both parents contribute one copy, or allele, of each gene to their offspring, so that we have two copies of every gene for a given trait – one from mom, the other from dad. In general, both copies of a gene are switched on or off as an embryo develops into an adult. The "switching on" of a gene begins the process of gene expression that ultimately results in the production of a protein.
