Originally posted by ChimeraTX+Apr 25 2005, 11:22 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ChimeraTX @ Apr 25 2005, 11:22 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>
Originally posted by jonb@Apr 25 2005, 06:15 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-ChimeraTX
@Apr 25 2005, 03:14 PM
I expected you would be nihilistic.
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Err . . . WTF?
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I believe ORCABOMBER is multiracial.
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Depends on what your definition of "Carribean" is. I happen to be the Mewtwo combination of the decendants of an "Indian" slave and and an African slave. Anyway, my favourite computer game is
Command and Conquer, Generals, of course my atytitude towards people is "odd"! Anyway, I'm a mutt, so what? Historically, I can trace that my grandfather on my dad's side fought in WW2 for "White man's foolishness", my other's a farmer. I feel that not having the "weight" of loads of dead people who somehow were better than me is relieving. I am free to create my own legacy as I see fit and can control who, what, why and how I live and control my future. I am a control freak when it comes to my life and can sit back and control my universe. That's how I see my existance.
But anyway, my attitude on genetics is that it's far too easy to put a mean to an end. Anyway, speaking of JonB and Albinoes WHERE'S THE RED EYE GENE? See? Some people tend to forget these sort of things. I think I'll leave JonB to work out population genetics in Native Americans, although haplotypes are tissue types (well, cell surface protein types). I mean, do Native Americans have a different flesh type? Wow. Must make for some great eating.
Anyway, don't you know that recessive traits 'survive' better in homozygous populations? There's a difference between a gene being expressed and the gene existing. Some are turned off (e.g. a woman's other X chromonsome is compressed and is deactivated), or they're spliced out (in white blood cells, they cut their own DNA, so every B and T cell is genetically different).
But on the whole, if one gene is dominant over another, in the heterozygote, the other gene will still be active, but the affect wont be noticed.
Both chromosomes are read and if both are noticeable in an equal amount, then they are both dominant. That is what dominance and co-dominance mean.
Genes don't give a shit what their "title" is, if A is produced and is noticeable compared to B, then A is dominant, B recessive. If A and B are produced and give a noticeable effect when existing at the same time, then A and B are co dominant. If A+B are unnoticeable unless combined then they are additive.
They are only names we give to describe their behaviour. It's one of the first things I learnt at uni. We get too anal about names, but genes are not sentinent, they don't choose their reasoning, and it is dangerous to assume that we have the knowledge yet to plot everything into place. (in fact, could argue genes don't exist, but that's another argument, methinks).
But going back into populations. Say that you have a population with A alleles and a population with B alleles. This, I'm assuming is "your ideal world". But what in reality, we have some people with AB. Even if A is dominant. The B allele exists, but isn't noticably expressed. So an AB crossed with an AB gets AA and BB back. What complicates things, is that you're looking for an selective advantage in their being "no mixing". Ie, selection against the heterozygote. If you did, then the chances of getting A and B back will decrease and so there would be a deficit of heterozygotes and only "pure breeding" would generate the majority of A and B alleles.
Of course, thankfully, we don't have this, or the majority of the population of Europe and the United states would now be dead or doomed to poor fertility.
Another pre-conception is that there must be a "reason" for genes and populations to exist. Okay, a lot of the time they do. But let's think of it from the "lazy" point of view. Ultimately, as long as a gene makes it into the next generation, then it obviously worked, right? But how much can you get away with? Take skin colour, is their a disadvantage in being a certain colour? maybe in the past, yeah, fair enough, but was it life-threateining, or something that couldn't be overcome? The neutral gene theory goes nuts on this, assuming that "as long as the DNA gets passed on, who cares WHAT it does, as long as it doesn't hurt or benefit". I mean, as a modern person, does my skin colour, or hair colour make it harder for me to survive in the where I live? Not at all, so for all intents and purposes, skin colour and hair colour are neutral nowadays, if the "green" gene existed tomorrow, I'd assume that they'd have the same odds of surviving and having fertile kids as the rest of us (assuming the gene was a melaning mutation).
ChimeraTX, well, can't argue that you don't know your stuff, take a genetics (not Eugenics) course and I'm sure you'd be a tribute to your class, but you're confusing genetics and social science. There's no "Blacks are evil gene", there's no "Whites keep getting exploited gene", and there's no "Mutts suck" gene. We're socially evolving far beyond the limits of genetics and yes, genetics makes a part of who we are, but to quote a popular anime, genetics, define our shell, but sociiety increasingly defines our "ghost".