Polygenic+Inheritance

toc = Definition: = Polygenic inheritance is a pattern of inheritance in which many genes influence a trait, p.53 HGD Chapter 3, p.53

Examples:
Many genes influence the phenotype. There are many polygenic traits in which the dominant-recessive pattern is also at work. For example:
 * __Skin:__** Dark skin is dominant over light, but skin colors also blend together.

Dark colors (black, brown, hazel, and green) are dominant over light colors (blue and gray). However blend colors are also possible. People whose chromosomes carry a combination genes for green, blue and gray eyes can have blue-gray, green-blue, or blue-green eyes.
 * __Eye Color:__** Another polygenic trait with a dominant-recessive pattern. These genes cause the colored part of the eye to be dark or light.


 * __Height:__** Many genes influence height and they are not subject to a dominant and recessive pattern of inheritance.

Analogies:
Polygenic Inheritance is like mixing colors. Two different genes don't make one or the other, but instead can make a mixture of the two. For example, mixing blue and yellow make green. Which can be compared to genes that effect skin color being put together to make a different skin color than the two originals.

Mnemonics:
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In the News:
What Are Polygenic Inheritances? Some traits are due to a modification in only a single gene. These traits follow simple patterns of inheritance first described by Austrian monk Gregor Mendel in the 19th century. Many other characteristics, however, are determined by multiple genes from different regions of the genome. These are called polygenic characteristics, and polygenic inheritance is the way in which these traits are inherited. Eye color and height are two common examples.

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