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Question on Genotype vs Phenotype

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  • Question on Genotype vs Phenotype

    Hi Guys.

    I have a question I have been pondering for some time now.
    As per Ancestry.com (and others I have read):

    Quote:
    "IS IT ACCURATE?

    When determining your genetic ethnicity, we hold our process and results to an extremely high standard of accuracy. Our lab’s analysis uses some of the most advanced equipment and techniques to measure approximately 700,000 points in your genome (with at least a 98% rate of accuracy). We compare that to one of the most comprehensive and unique collections of genetic signatures from around the world. And as this collection improves over time, it can only get better.

    When reviewing your genetic ethnicity, here are some reasons why your results may be different than what you expected.

    First: Your DNA is inherited from your parents—roughly half from each parent. However within each half, there is room for unique variation. FOR EXAMPLE YOU MAY OR MAY NOT GET YOUR FATHER'S EYE COLOR, and likewise if he is half Italian you could (in theory) inherit anywhere from fifty to zero percent Italian (based on the random shuffling of DNA with each generation). When you factor this out over a few generations you can see how this becomes harder to predict and cause more room for error." - END QUOTE.

    As far as I know, eye color is a phenotype as well as a genotype - you can have the genotypes of two, or more eye colours, but the phenotype will randomly express only one and that will be your eye colour. Therefore it seems like when they say you may not inherit part of an ancestors DNA and your brother might inherit it, it might mean phenotype only that they are talking about - NOT genotype.

    Am I correct in saying this.
    Surely the genotype cannot just disappear, that makes very little sense- it has GOT to be the phenotype the are talking about. But although phenotype is totally random, phenotype, like genotype must be coded for with instructions somewhere in the genes, so that it can randomly choose, according to some formula, what the phenotype should be out of all the existing genotypes.

    Am I correct in saying this?
    If I am wrong what am I missing here.
    I am referring strictly to autosomal DNA here.

    Any opinion from any geneticists on here (or at least any experienced amateur geneologist on here)?

    Let me give you an analogy to further explain my thinking on this (with exception of totally new genetic mutations of course).

    You know when you buy a lotto ticket and ask them for the computer to randomly pick 6 numbers for you? Those 6 numbers are like your phenotype, i.e. what people see when looking at you, but the total pool of numbers the computer was able to choose from is the genotype (eg the next lotto ticket chosen by the computer might have a different set of numbers, but they will still fall within the pre-selected pool of numbers and be restricted to the numbers in that pool - i.e. in the GENOtype). The formula used by the computer to make that random choice must be coded for somewhere in the genotype as well, but only the formula, or instruction to randomly choose the phenotype, NOT the phenotype itself. Just the formula and a list of genotypes to choose from.

    Genotype should NOT be "lost" along the way from generation to generation - even partially. Only phenotype should change.
    Last edited by JohnDoe; 2 June 2016, 04:36 AM.
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