Why do we resemble our parents

That's why, they look exactly alike! As we already discussed that, each parent contributes one complete set of chromosomes to each child, however, the set of chromosomes from each parent is through random selection of 23 chromosomes from the 46 chromosomes 23 pairs.

The only rule is that the child must receive exactly one of each chromosome from both the parents. So, our question is — "If we inherit our parents 'genes', then why don't we look exactly like them? If the complete 23 pairs inherits, as it is to the child, he will look exactly like his father or mother, but what actually happens is— the genes randomly passes to the next generation.

There, shown the set of chromosomes of father, in the similar way— the offspring inherits chromosomal sets from mother". As a result, each brother and sister inherits a very different combination of chromosomes. From each parent, there are 2 23 possible combinations. This is the reason, why siblings look different.

What about identical twins then? Identical twins receive exactly the same combination of genes from their parents. Most of the time, people talk about haploid and diploid conditions of humans and other multicellular organisms.

Actually what does this mean? Let's try to resolve and find out, what actually haploid and diploid condition mean. We inherit one chromosome of each pair from each parent. So the 46 chromosomes in our somatic cells Any cell of a living organism other than the reproductive cells are called somatic cells are actually two sets of 23 chromosomes— a maternal set from our mother and a paternal set from our father. The number of chromosomes in a single set is represented by ' n '.

Any cell with two chromosome sets is called diploid cell and has a diploid number of chromosomes, abbreviated ' 2n '. Unlike somatic cells, gametes sperm and egg cells contain a single chromosome set.

Such cells are called haploid cells, and each has a haploid number of chromosomes n. The set of 23 consists of the 22 autosomes plus a single sex chromosome. An unfertilized egg cell also called an ovum contains an X chromosome, but a sperm cell may contain an X or Y chromosome. A male develops from a zygote containing one chromosome and one Y chromosome. The human life cycle begins when a haploid sperm cell from the father fuses with a haploid ovum from the mother.

This union of gametes, culminating in fusion of their nuclei, is called fertilization. The resulting fertilized egg or zygote , is diploid because it contains two haploid sets of chromosomes bearing genes representing the maternal and paternal family lines. As human develops from a zygote to a sexually mature adult, mitosis generates all the somatic cells of the body.

Both chromosome sets in the zygote and all the genes they carry are passed with precision to our somatic cells. The only cells of the human body not produced by mitosis are the gametes, which develop in the gonads— ovaries in females and testes in males. Imagine what would happen if human gametes were made by mitosis: They would be diploid like the somatic cells.

At the next round of fertilization, when two gametes fused, the normal chromosome number of 46 would double to 92, and each subsequent generation would double the number of chromosomes yet again. This hypothetical situation of constantly increasing chromosome number in sexually reproducing organisms is avoided through the process of meiosis.

This type of cell division reduces the number of sets of chromosomes from two to one in the gametes, compensating for the doubling that occurs at fertilization. In animals, meiosis occurs only in the ovaries or testes. Fertilization restores the diploid condition by combining two haploid sets of chromosomes, and the human life cycle is repeated, generation after generation. Indeed, the process of fertilization and meiosis are the unique trademarks of sexual reproduction. Fertilization and meiosis alternate in sexual life cycles, offsetting each other's effects on the chromosome number and thus perpetuating a species' chromosome count.

Thus, meiosis occurs during production of gametes, which undergo no further cell division prior to fertilization. The diploid zygote divides by mitosis, producing a multicellular organism that is diploid. Now, let's start understanding what is mitosis and meiosis and how these two phenomena help one to grow in size, and show genetic variations in offspring.

The human body is made up of about a hundred trillion cells. But, we didn't start out that way. We each began as one single cell. How does one cell become a trillion? Cells reproduce themselves by dividing.

A "mother" cell divides into two "daughter" cells that are exactly like the mother cell. After growing for a while, these two cells divide to make four cells. If cell division continues, eventually there will be a trillion cells! Cells don't just split in half, though. Before they can divide, cells must make some preparations. Let's think about chromosomes for a minute. Most human cells are "diploid", which means that they have two complete sets of 23 chromosomes.

Before it divides, the mother cell makes a copy of each chromosome. This means that, for a short time, the mother cell has four complete sets of 23 chromosomes! Why does the mother cell do this? Thus, through mitosis, cells can keep on dividing— from one cell all the way to a trillion. We need it for growth and repair. Think about the example at the start of this topic, starting off as a zygote to human being.

In order to grow into a human being, we have to have enough cell division to make trillions of cells! The previous example was for growth, but mitosis is also important for repair. When your skin is cut, you certainly want more skin cells to come in and repair the cut.

So, the nearby skin cells undergo mitosis there are also other things that happen that are beyond the scope of this short discussion to repair the cut. Cells are constantly sloughed off, dying and being replaced by new ones in the skin and digestive tract. When damaged tissues are repaired, the new cells must be exact copies of the cells being replaced, so as to retain normal function of cells.

The other reason for this dissimilarity can be attributed to the fact that the sibling may receive the other half of the genes from the parents — different from the other child. Since the genes received themselves are different, the resultant expression and appearance of them will be different as well.

In this case, there will be little to no resemblance between the siblings. Although this number seems small, it is significant enough to label someone closely-related. As the relation between people increases, the number of genes shared between them grossly decreases. Still, the changes are not high enough for monozygotic twins to look different — they will look nearly the same or identical.

In the case of dizygotic twins, there are two eggs and two sperms or one egg and two sperms which subsequently divided into two embryos. The shared genes like siblings do — ranging from It is interesting to note that monozygotic twins are never of two different sexes, while dizygotic twins can be of the same or different sexes depending on the type of fertilization.

To summarise, the resemblance between family members is a play on genetics and inheritance of traits. A comparison of this data with that of another individual can help in linking the biological relationship between the individuals.

Skip to content. Why do we resemble our family? Share This Post. Share on facebook. Share on linkedin. Both traits are the result of recessive genes, just as blue eyes or O blood type is. Still, the combination of red hair and green eyes tends to be uncommon in today's population. Main page Questions categories Philosophy and history Common philosophy Philosophy in education Philosophy and sociology Philosophy edu Students info Common articles Best philosophy topics.

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