So. What's all this about human eye colour, then? Remember how you were taught in high school that brown is dominant, and blue is recessive? And how the one awkward kid with green eyes always left disappointed ( Read more... )

Temperature Sensitivity ( Read more... )

A case study: horse coat colour. For no reason other than that it's one of the most complex visible genetic systems that is fully understood and predictable. Also, it's cool ( Read more... )

So, yesterday I casually mentioned tissue matching in organ transplantation. What's going on there, I hear you ask. That it is genetic should be pretty obvious, given that close relatives are far more likely to be able to provide transplantable tissue, and that unrelated transplant donors are generally of the same race as the recipient ( Read more... )

Chimerism ( Read more... )

Today, I am going to tell you about tortoiseshell cats ( Read more... )

Sex Linkage ( Read more... )

Yes, I know it's after midnight. I actually wrote it this morning and forgot to post it ( Read more... )

Two case studies today, because examples really are the best way to teach this sort of thing ( Read more... )

So, yesterday I explained how even a small genetic mutation can make a non-functional protein, and then I said it's not as simple as all that. The reason for this is that proteins are not just "functional" or "not functional"- many small mutations actually make proteins that just about work, ish ( Read more... )