Dear Doctor,

Recently, a couple in my neighbourhood divorced. The cause of their disagreement was because the man insisted that the feet of the new-born baby didn’t resemble his, so he was bitter that his wife had cheated on him. What features on a child are inherited from either parent?

Stellah

Dear Stellah,

It is indeed sad that a man divorced his wife on flimsy excuse, without knowing or verifying facts. Theoretically a boy inherits one chromosome(X) from mother and one(Y) from his father. A baby girl has 2 x chromosomes. X chromosome being bigger than Y, Father the boy would have slightly more DNA from Mother than Father. But practically it does not mean that a boy would resemble his mother more or carry some of her traits. It is said that a baby inherits 50 per cent traits from each parent. But there may be some traits recessive not manifest in a parent or either parent. But it may become dominant and thus manifest in a child.

The common genetic pool is passed on from one generation to another with variations depending on which traits are manifest in a particular generation. For example, both parents may have straight hair and may carry recessive genes for curly hair. The baby born can have curly hair due to this trait becoming dominant. For this reason, a baby may not resemble either parent but may share common features with a grandparent or some other blood relative. Nobody can predict which features of the mother or father will be inherited by a baby.

This gentleman who doubts his wife could get his DNA matched with that of the baby to confirm that he is indeed the father.

Dr Rachna Pande is a specialist in internal medicine at Ruhengeri Hospital