Cleft Chin - Paternity

Cleft Chin
Pearlladie,

Sometimes people have the cleft under their chins, which can be checked by passing your finger under it and feeling the cleft - it doesn't feel straight.

Neither of my parents have clefts but I do have one. And if both parents have a cleft, it is possible for them to have children without a cleft chin. The cleft chin trait is dominant, so if both parents were heterozygous with a cleft chin and both passed down the reccessive, or "little letter", then their children would not have a cleft.

Swimgirl--

Welcome to A2K. Thanks for an interesting post.

How do people not know this? I learned about genetics in 7th grade. If you have a dominant trait (such as brown eyes) you may carry only the dominant trait (BB) or you may carry the dominant and recessive trait (Bb). The only way to know if your BB or Bb is a genetic test. Most people who display a recessive trait only carry recessive traits (bb), but it is possible for them to carry the dominant trait (Bb). Each parent contributes one of traits they carry (it might not be the same one you display). Two parents who are BB dominant can only produce BB dominant children. But two parents who are Bb dominant have a 25% chance of producing a BB baby, 25% chance of a bb baby, and 50% chance of a Bb baby (the odds are the same if one or both of the parents are Bb but display the recessive trait). If one parents is Bb and another bb there is a 50% chance of a Bb child and a 50% chance of a bb child. There are more possible combinations but hopefully you get the point.

is a cleft chin a deformity

Genetics is far more complicated than your science teachers and CSI make it out to be. Cleft chins are caused by the lower jaw not fusing properly and it may not be just because of a single gene for why this happens, environmental factors during the development of the fetous can lead to the same feature. Also genes can change its called mutation its how evolution happens and if a change were to happen to the gene that causes a cleft chin then it could fix it so it produces a chin without a cleft. Please don;t blame your science teachers they have to teach the simple stuff so that everyone can grasp the science. What gets me is why these misconceptions are allowed to carry on by the likes of the media. by a science teacher