Many parents go through the same motions when a new baby arrives in their life. They look at their newborns with wonder and amazement, and ask: will this baby become more like me or my spouse?
The fascination for which parents is more like their kids is normal. Scientists, however, might have figured out the answer to the parents' questions as to why the children is a lot more like them. It has something to do with how the brain functions.
A study published in Nature Genetics and done by genome scientist Dr. Howard Chang, PhD and scholar Jin Xu, PhD, revealed one parent's genetics can indeed dominate the other parents' genes so that a child could be more like that parent's "mini-me." What's more revealing is that this genetic influence can last for generations.
Chang told Standford's Scopeblog there's a circuit in the brain that contains all of the parents' genetic information. This is how a child inherits characteristics and traits from his parents.
Experts have long assumed the brain chooses this information at random and switches both genetic codes from the mom and dad together. The new study, however, reveals that the brain might actually favor the genetic copy of one parent over the other, and not share both. Once the brain fixates on one genetic copy, it can reflect and follow generations of other offspring.
"This would mean that the genetic influence from only one parent would predominate in those cells and their progeny," Chang said. He described the phenomena as Random Monoallelic Accessible (RAMA).
Further studies might be needed to determine why the brain functions this way. It is, however, a vital discovery since it can also provide answers to dysfunctional genetic traits that could explain developmental and behavioral disorders passed from one generation to the next. The findings could also support other RAMA-associated gene studies done by other scientists.
