The genetics of witchness, and stuff.
Okay, I am such a nerd. Sometimes today, I went and ponder the genetics of witchness again. Yes, again, meaning I thought about the subject before.
Let's introduce the idea. In general, witches are female humans with magical capabilities. In certain stories, they live to be very very old. There are a lot of variety of how witches are born, however, for the sake of this study, we will suppose that witches can only be born from witches (thus the traits of witchness is entirely genetic), and there is no such thing as a wizard (male version of witches).
Several months ago, I pondered that if only females gets the trait, the gene thus must be on the X chromosome. Since males cannot be witches, the Y chromosome must have some inhibiting factors. But then if it follows that female children of witches will be witches, then there must be a bias as to the X chromosome that gets transmitted. But wait, then shouldn't there be a spontaneous case of witchery where the father passes on a "recessive" X chromosome to a female child, and thus have a witch in the family when both parents appear to be "normal? I then come to the conclusion that the genetics of witchness cannot work.
BUT, today, I thought of something that would make it work. How could I have NOT thought about mitochondrial DNA?? It fits perfectly! mtDNA only gets passed down from the mother, thus you don't have to worry about the father contributing any mitochondrial genetic materials. Thus, the gene for witchness MUST be in the mtDNA! The only difference between males and females in terms of chromosomes is that males have the Y chromosome. Thus, there must be an inhibiting factor of witchness located somewhere in the Y chromosome.
Did I mention that I'm such a nerd?
Oh, and for something completely different, I figured out why I'm still stuck with 2MB of e mail space for my hotmail account. Hotmail offers 250MB of space for the following regions: the 50 United States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (and obviously Canada, 'cause all my friends have it). They do NOT offer 250MB of space if you live in Antarctica! (Well, it seemed like a good idea to say I lived in Antarctica when I signed up for hotmail).
Well, that's enough post for me for now. Oh, and my twisted music quiz will come in a week or so. BEWARE, it's gonna consist of very twisted lyrics :D. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Let's introduce the idea. In general, witches are female humans with magical capabilities. In certain stories, they live to be very very old. There are a lot of variety of how witches are born, however, for the sake of this study, we will suppose that witches can only be born from witches (thus the traits of witchness is entirely genetic), and there is no such thing as a wizard (male version of witches).
Several months ago, I pondered that if only females gets the trait, the gene thus must be on the X chromosome. Since males cannot be witches, the Y chromosome must have some inhibiting factors. But then if it follows that female children of witches will be witches, then there must be a bias as to the X chromosome that gets transmitted. But wait, then shouldn't there be a spontaneous case of witchery where the father passes on a "recessive" X chromosome to a female child, and thus have a witch in the family when both parents appear to be "normal? I then come to the conclusion that the genetics of witchness cannot work.
BUT, today, I thought of something that would make it work. How could I have NOT thought about mitochondrial DNA?? It fits perfectly! mtDNA only gets passed down from the mother, thus you don't have to worry about the father contributing any mitochondrial genetic materials. Thus, the gene for witchness MUST be in the mtDNA! The only difference between males and females in terms of chromosomes is that males have the Y chromosome. Thus, there must be an inhibiting factor of witchness located somewhere in the Y chromosome.
Did I mention that I'm such a nerd?
Oh, and for something completely different, I figured out why I'm still stuck with 2MB of e mail space for my hotmail account. Hotmail offers 250MB of space for the following regions: the 50 United States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (and obviously Canada, 'cause all my friends have it). They do NOT offer 250MB of space if you live in Antarctica! (Well, it seemed like a good idea to say I lived in Antarctica when I signed up for hotmail).
Well, that's enough post for me for now. Oh, and my twisted music quiz will come in a week or so. BEWARE, it's gonna consist of very twisted lyrics :D. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
1 Comments:
God Jack,
out of all places on earth...why Antarctica?
By the way...I fully appreciate your little nerdy rant on witchness..I'm sure I'll incorporate it into a manga story plot at some point. And don't worry, I'll give you full credit.
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