2010 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2010. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.

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If both parents are homozygous for a certain trait, is it possible for their child to have a phenotype for a recessive trait?      Amy Gaviglio, M.S.: I am a genetic counselor for the newborn screening program in Minnesota. I also supervise the short-term follow-up unit in the program in order to ensure babies identified get diagnosed and services. If the parents are homozygous for the recessive trait, then the child will most certainly have a phenotype for the recessive trait. If the parents are homozygous for the dominant trait, then it is highly unlikely the child with have a recessive phenotype. We never say never in genetics though, because mutations could occur in both parents that cause the child to show a recessive phenotype even though the parents both have dominant traits! Brownsville Area High School in PA (9th grade student)

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