Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePhanastasio
If both of the traits are recessive, then couldn't both of the parents carry the genes but only one actually be autistic / have Aspergers? (Because both genes are recessive in one instance, only one in the other) Because if it's recessive, then they would have the dominant gene of not having aspergers / autism paired with a recessive gene (they could potentially pass on) but not have the disorder themselves?
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^ yes, I was about to point out that this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by duga
Like, if both had autism the children would most likely inherit it. Since only one does, none will.
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was an exaggeration, though the rest of the post was right, which made this not fit in at all :P I may not have studied genetics, but it came up an excessive amount in Statistics in certain areas of probability (and I had this conversation with my GF recently, and she studied biology in various forms for 10 years).
You can be a carrier of a recessive gene without feeling the effects of it personally. Given that you get one from one parent and one from the other, if you have one parent who DOES have the recessive trait, that means you're going to get at least one recessive gene (since they can't have the dominant in order to have the recessive trait). If the other is non-recessive, there's no way of telling whether they have both dominant or 1 dominant 1 recessive. In this case, seeing as he evidently does not have the trait, it means that he definitely got a dominant gene from someone, but if one parent has the recessive trait, you could be 99.99999% sure (given the simple layout of this - I'm sure that when it comes to levels of aspergers/autism the genetics and thus the probability is a little more complex, but for the sake of argument: ) that he is a carrier, since recessive trait => can only pass on recessive gene.