Talk:Genetic linkage
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Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · refresh) Rated "high" as high school/SAT biology content; the article is lacking references. - tameeria 01:05, 11 March 2007 (UTC) |
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[edit] Moved from article
Editor's note: There has also been many diseases and conditions that have been treated or discovered using genetic linkage. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.197.225.54 (talk • contribs) .
[edit] Why is this phenomenon not mentioned more in non-scientific media?
I find it fascinating that geneticists know which human traits are inherited together. I imagine they can predict, for example, the chances that a child who gets his father's hair color will also get some other particular trait from him as well ... and which ones the child will almost certainly get. I sometimes note a physical similarity between a child and one of the parents, and try to see what temperamental or intellectual characteristic they also did or did not get. In so speculating, I'm sort of imagining the kind of genetic map that the experts must have down pat.
I would think these associations would be all over popular magazines and gossip columns. Why not? Do most people not care? Or aren't they able to grasp what's going on? Anyone care to weigh in on this? Sfahey 02:49, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
I feel that's a gross overstatement of geneticists' current capabilities. They may have some traits linked together, but they don't know whether or not your father's hair color comes along with his alcoholism and good work ethic.
...although you are thinking along the right lines, Sfahey. The trouble is so many of the traits you might be interested in (like alcoholism) are complex, meaning that they have many genetic components in addition to sensitivity to many environmental exposures. So if, say, one gene contributes 1% of the genetic heritability of alcoholism and is closely linked to a visible trait (such as hair color), we may never notice it because without a huge population to study we would have a lot of trouble detecting it. However, some really cool genes are linked because of their close proximity to each other. For example, some olfactory/scent genes are located right next to the HLA genes (which encode a major component of your immune system). Some studies have shown that people preferentially mate with individuals of different HLA type- and we may use smell to do that! I find it fascinating, too. If more people like you were interested, popular magazines and gossip columns might give the topic some press. Though I'm not sure that's always a good thing :)
Nat Genet. 2002 Feb;30(2):175-9. Epub 2002 Jan 22. Paternally inherited HLA alleles are associated with women's choice of male odor.
- Thanks for response.Sfahey 23:27, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Image
This image looks like it could be used in this article: Image:Linkage.png --apers0n 07:49, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Added a section of Genetic Map/linkage map
Genetic map and linkage map (or Genetic linkage map) is essentially the same and relies on the principle of genetic linkage. There was a genetic map article but it was a stub anyway so I moved it here.
[edit] Merge from "recombination frequency"
Oppose merge Unless this article is preserved as the primary title. "Linkage" is a much more familiar term. It shouldn't be stuck inside an article on Recombination frequency, which fewer people would go to look up. Sfahey 02:58, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
- I agree and have reversed the direction of the proposed merge to reflect this comment.Dr d12 20:49, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
Support per above Sfahey 04:23, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
As a college student taking an upper level Genetics course, I support merging recombination frequency into gene linkage, as it is a part of undertanding the whole picture. Recombination frequency is a section in the chapter on gene linkage in our book, and is discussed heavily in our lectures. -ZRiley
[edit] Merge from "Linked genes"
Support. I agree, these are duplicate articles. The problem is this: can we use anything from the "linked genes" article here, or should it just be deleted? Dr d12 03:28, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
