Are You More Like Your Mom or More Like Your Dad Genetic Inheritance

There are lots of ways to inherit cancer risk. for example, when discussing breast cancer risk we focus on the mother’s side (The Gail scale) very often it is the paternal side that is actually conferring risk. It could be that 5% of the risk is from the paternal side. There is a risk model that incorporates about a half a dozen risk models to be able to capture as many factors as possible. Biologically, there’s a lot ot it!

Actually other studies of inherited disease risk have been done using paternal data, like the studies that tried to identify the purity of the genetic line of certain gypsy populations. For instance, family history of risk of Alzheimer’s confers risk, however those with mothers with Alzheimer’s are at more risk than those with fathers who have Alzheimer’s.

The genetics of disease is extraordinarily complex. We do inherit two genes, one from each parent (roughly) but through a principal called imprinting we may only have one of the two genes turned on. So when amassing your family history, be sure to get the history from both sides.

Genetic inheritance from your mom and dad are biologically different in several ways:

1. Chromosomes: Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, with one chromosome in each pair inherited from each parent. The sex chromosomes, X and Y, determine your biological sex. Females have two X chromosomes, one from each parent, while males have one X chromosome from their mother and one Y chromosome from their father.
2. Alleles: Each chromosome contains many genes, which determine traits such as eye color, height, and susceptibility to diseases. Each gene can have different versions called alleles, and you inherit one allele from each parent. Sometimes one allele is dominant over the other, meaning that it will express itself and the other allele will not.
3. Random assortment: When the mother’s egg cell and the father’s sperm cell meet during fertilization, their chromosomes combine randomly, so the resulting offspring will have a unique combination of chromosomes and genes.
4. Epigenetics: In addition to DNA sequence variations, there are also epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, that can be passed down from parents to offspring and can affect gene expression.

Overall, genetic inheritance from your mom and dad is a complex process that involves the interaction of many factors, resulting in a unique combination of genetic traits in each individual.