h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1) if a couple have children and ones got a rare blood type, the other a common blood type whats the likelihood that the children will be of rare blood type?

2) if a couple have children and ones brunette the other blonde, what colour will their said children have? and if one parent has a ginger haired parent?

1. you can't say an answer to that I don't think, unless you know which type of blood cell gantigens you are talking aobut, and hence the way in which its alleles are passed down and expressed in teh progeny I don't know anything on ineritance of hair colour

As far as I know red hair (we're not ginger ) is a recessive gene n needs to be carried by both parents for th child to be red. Why the question? surely if the child is healthy thats all thats important.

My mum had auburn hair, my father light brown...I'm brunette.
My Uncle has Brown hair, my aunt black hair...they had, 1 child with black hair, 1 with brown, 2 auburn, 1 blonde. Go figure.

...although I believe the milkman's name came up hither and thither.

Hmmm, I think the rarer blood types are recessive, actually. O is definitely dominant, that I know. It is difficult to answer that question without knowing more information.

With hair colour, the darker the hair (generally) the more dominant the gene - however, recessive genes are carried, and passed on down the generations.

Examples:

My husband is A+ as are both his parents. I am O+, as are both my parents. Our children are both O+ but must obviously carry the recessive gene so if they procreate with A+, my grandchildren have a 75% chance of coming out A+

My mum had fine blonde hair and is green eyed. She comes from a family of eight: tall and fair, dark and tall or short and fair.

My father had coarse dark hair, dark eyed like all his family.

My husband and both his parents have fine dark hair and hazel eyes. One of our children has coarse curly dark hair (like me) and the other has fine thick dark hair. Both have light brown/chocolatey eyes.

I have four brothers: three have dark eyes and a ginger tinge to their beards if and when they grow them. The oldest has hazel eyes.

My brothers have fair and dark children with different coloured eyes - but of 14 grandchildren, only two have green eyes and three are fair haired (ie not black hair)...

*phew* after all that, please tell me you're writing an entry on this!



Wilma

My ex's family are very mixed too..
his Dad has very dark brown hair with grey in now,
his Mum very blonde/white,
his sister has long blonde hair,
his other sister long red/ginger hair
and he has mousey brown hair

go figure..personally i think there all interbred freak of natures,(hence he's the ex)

I also know a couple..he's got dark brown hair,she's got blonde,2kids red/ginger..

There must be alot of redhaired milk men about,

1. Blood types are quite a few. The letter, + or - are just the most common ones.

If one has rare and the other commom (in a tipical case) i could say both parents are heterozygotic (more or less like i believe it is spelled in english), and so the odds are 25% have a rare blood type child and 75% having normal blood type children (25% being homozygotic and 50% heterozygotic children).

2. Hair color has also many variables. There is a blond, brunnete and redhead more commom types. I am not sure at this moment but i think that any middle colors can be obtained depending on the parents genetics. Hair colors actually are more family complex than blood types, but (as always in genetics) it all depends of how homogenetic or heterogenic are the family or person genetic data.

While you are thinking about genetics: if your grandparents had no children, and your parents had no children, the chances are very big that you will not have any children, either.

Y.

My mates parents are have blone and brunette hair but both their kids are ginger!
Funny old world.

Sadly I'm not writing an entry on this I just wanted to know what would happen if me and my bf one day had children. It would be fantastic if one child had my bf's blood type as I don't have his and hence believe my blood would be useless to him if he had an accident. While another child could have my blood type and help me out if needs be.

As for redheads (apologies for calling you ginger), blondes and brunettes again I just wanted to know what would happen if me and my bf one day had children. It just shows that I can't look at Mr and Mrs Incredible for advice on the subject.

Thanks all

My husband and I know that our kids will have blue eyes because we both have blue eyes and that is the result of a recessive gene. As for hair colour, I'm fair although both parents are dark - they must both have been carrying a blonde gene in there. J is dark so we'll just have to wait and see - one of those exciting little surprises

But isn't there also the chance of random mutations cropping up? Red haired kids have been known to be born to black haired parents, haven't they? So even if your family tree seems to ensure blue eyes or whatnot, your kid might still go a different color?

No - to have blue eyes I must have a blue-eye (or really a lack of colour) gene from mum, and the same gene from dad because blue is recessive - if I had anything else then I wouldn't have blue eyes. My hubby is the same so any kids we have will definitely get blue from me and blue from him. Don't know if it is possible for me to have an albino baby, I can't remember if that is a mutation in a gene or a rare inherited trait.

Hair colour is quite complex as there are obviously different shades of blonde, brown, black etc that are the results of a combination of different genes so we will really have to wait and see

The genes that make us A or B are dominant, the O gene is recessive.
So if a child inherited the A gene from one parent, and an O gene from another (Ao) then they would always be group A. Group B likewise.

If a child inherited an A gene from one parent and a B gene from another, they would be co-dominant and the child would be blood group AB.
To be group O, the child would need to inherit an O gene from both parents.

Oh dear looks like no future child of mine could save my dear bf!

I take it being albino is not a good thing? I feel sorry for those who are born that way.

Aren't there degrees of albino-ism (if that's a word)?

Blue eyes are recessive; both my parents have blue eyes, and I have blue eyes. My husband's got green eyes, his mum has blue eyes and his dad has hazel eyes, so I have no idea what our kids are likely to have.

Now then, I've got prematurely greying hair (about a third of my hair is grey at the age of 26) - which I got from my mum (an only child), who got it from her dad... I guess that the gene for grey hair is dominant, and hence all of my children will probably also have the gene and hence also go grey early?

I have no idea about blood type, though. It's a long time since I did this stuff at school!

Just to bring up the eye thing again...but...

My mum and dad both have blue eyes...yet i have 1-blue eye & 1-hazel eye....

>>to check my birth certificate

(points) A mutant, a mutant!



seriously, isn't it so that two different coloured eyes are a product of mutation? doubt creeping up now...

David Bowie has two different coloured eyes and is only occasionally considered a mutant. That was from a good punch in the face though, which I don't advise