Our hair colour is determined by genes in our DNA, therefore it is inherited from our parents.
Ginger hair is a recessive feature meaning if you have ginger hair your parents hair doesn’t have to be ginger, they may just be carriers of the gene for it.
when we get our genes from our parents we recieve two of everything. one is called dominant gene one is recessive. we need two dominant genes or one dominant with a recessive to make that colour. ginger is a recessive gene so people have to have two recessive genes to become giner. this means that their parents although might not themselves be ginger both carry the recessive ginger gene.
There is a gene in the body called “Melanocortin 1 receptor” that helps regulates hair and skin colour. There are alternative forms of this gene (called alleles) that are responsible for Red hair colour and paler skin tone.
The alternative genes are “recessive”, this means that if one of your parents have the gene for red hair but the other has one for brown hair the because brown hair is dominant you will have brown coloured hair. You need both parents to have red hair for the child to have red hair.
John you are saying thatb both parents need to be ginger but Del and Cat are saying it is in your dna wich I know is true but can you prover your point
This is a very good comment. I meant to say their parents are “carriers of the red form of MC1R” rather than red hair. DNA contains all the information for how to build a human including “genes” like MC1R. Our DNA has two copies of each gene. When we are made we get one copy from our mother and one copy from our father. Minor alterations in some of these genes, called alleles, is how we have characteristics like hair colour. Some genes are dominant – meaning out body ignores the other copy, while some are recessive – meaning that you need both copies to be the same allele to get the effect. This is what happens with red hair and the MC1R gene, so both your parents would need to have the allele for the red hair
Comments
sextona10611 commented on :
John you are saying thatb both parents need to be ginger but Del and Cat are saying it is in your dna wich I know is true but can you prover your point
John commented on :
This is a very good comment. I meant to say their parents are “carriers of the red form of MC1R” rather than red hair. DNA contains all the information for how to build a human including “genes” like MC1R. Our DNA has two copies of each gene. When we are made we get one copy from our mother and one copy from our father. Minor alterations in some of these genes, called alleles, is how we have characteristics like hair colour. Some genes are dominant – meaning out body ignores the other copy, while some are recessive – meaning that you need both copies to be the same allele to get the effect. This is what happens with red hair and the MC1R gene, so both your parents would need to have the allele for the red hair
12joyceh commented on :
I thought it was about DNA