How Are Genes Inherited

Submitted By razminAzman
Words: 649
Pages: 3

How are genes inherited?
We inherit our genes from our parents. Genes are a part of our DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which carries information which determines your physical traits, like if you have curly hair or strait hair, blue eyes or brown eyes. Brown eyes are dominant, while blue eyes are recessive, but if both of the parents have blue eyes then it is highly likely that the child will have blue eyes. These genes are lined up in chromosomes. Each human has 25 pairs of chromosomes the first 22 pairs determine our traits and the last 2 are sex linked genes which determine our gender.
Genes have information which determines our physical traits like colour hair, eyes and skin. All of these genes are inherited from our parents. Half of our chromosomes come from one parent and the other half comes from the other parent. For example both of my parents have dark brown eyes and brown eyes are dominant, so therefore i received my dark brown eyes from both of my parents, but if my mother had blue eyes I would most likely have brown eyes because blue eyes are recessive while brown eyes are dominant. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) looks like 2 long paired spirals, also known as the double helix. Each strand is made up of millions of chemical building blocks and bases. There are only 4 different chemical bases in DNA adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. These chemical bases are always paired up with the same bases: Adenine- Thymine and Cytosine-Guanine.
Human cells have 2 sets of chromosomes, one set is inherited from the mother and the other set is inherited from the father. Humans have 25 pairs of chromosomes and 46 single chromosomes. The first 22 pairs determine our traits and the last 2 are sex linked, which determine our gender, weather we’re a girl or boy. Sperm carries either an X chromosome or a Y chromosome. The X chromosome is a female and the Y chromosome is a male, so if a sperm carrying an X chromosome fertilizes an egg then the child would be a female and if a sperm carrying a Y chromosome fertilizes an egg then the child would be a male. Females inherit an X from both parents while males inherit and X from the mother and a Y from his Father.
We humans inherit our genes from our parents. They way we look are all