Question: If you had no DNA wouldn't you be an albino and you'll have no features in your body? Is this right?

Asked by lulu to Kate on 12 Mar 2013.

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  1. Photo: Kate SkulteKate Skulte
    answered on 12 Mar 2013:

    If you didn’t have DNA you wouldn’t exist! Albino refers to someone who does not have normal pigmentation or colour. These people (or animals) generally have fair skin, white hair and pink eyes. They have DNA, but the genes that would normally be reponsible for giving them pigmentation are either mutated and don’t work or are dysfunctional.

    When we think about the genes that give us our physical characteristics, we call them either dominant – so if you have at least one copy of the gene you will show that characteristic, or recessive, where you need to have two copies to show the characteristic. Take eye colour for example, brown eyes are dominant so if you have one or two copies of the gene for brown eyes you will have brown eyes. For a person to have blue eyes, which is recessive you HAVE to have two copies of the blue eyes gene. Having one copy for blue eyes and one copy for brown eyes will still give you brown eyes because brown is dominant over the recessive blue.

    Missing pigment is a recessive trait. So you have to inherit bad copies of the gene for pigment from both your parents to be albino. If you just get one bad copy, the good copy which is dominat will still be able to produce pigment for you.

    This is why albinoism is rare. There are not many bad copies around and you need to get two of them.

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Comments

  1. Photo: chocolate9chocolate9
    commented on 13 Mar 2013:

    I am interested in that too lulu

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  2. Photo: lulululu
    commented on 13 Mar 2013:

    Thankyou for the answer it really helped! My friend has a brown and a blue eye! How come the brown eye is dominate and not the blue? Why not both? Thanks Lulu

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  3. Photo: ally11ally11
    commented on 13 Mar 2013:

    Good question lulu

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  4. Photo: KateKate
    commented on 13 Mar 2013:

    @lulu That’s really interesting about your friend! I’m not sure why brown is dominant over blue. There are some characteristics where both are dominant. A good example is blood type. The main blood grouping system is ABO. Blood types A and B are dominant over O, but when you have one copy of A and one copy of B you have the characteristics of both and your blood type is AB. 🙂

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