Calling Genetics Folk - if a child looks strikingly like someone else in the family, are they more likely to have other genetic attributes of that person?

[lummox]

ds2 looks strikingly like one of his grandfathers. Does anyone know if that makes him more likely to be like his grandad in other ways?

Wouldn't have thought so, unless his looks are the result of a specific genetic syndrome.
But because he looks like him people are likely to keep saying 'ah yes sporty like his grandpa' 'ah yes stubborn like his grandpa' etc so you'll notice the personality traits they have in common more than the differences.
Either that or it'll be 'but he looks so like his grandpa I'd have expected him to be sportier / more stubborn' etc which will have the opposite effect.

Was there something particular you were worried about?

simple statistics says no. Unless the same genes that control appearance are also responsible for the other attributes.

not worried at all - just curious!

Mrs B, I think there is a chance that because he looks so much like him, we will think that he is likely to be similar - so it would be easy to think that he would be engineering minded, or bad at football for example.

Snorkle - I guess that is a better way of putting the question - are the genes that are responsible for your looks thought to be linked to other things such as skills, personality traits, illnesses, etc?

ooh, complicated question - have brought this thread to the attention of Tamum who is a serious geneticist.

But broadly, if the answer is yes, the it's in very complex ways that we haven't figured out yet.

thanks for that Mrs B

I don't know lummox. A guess would be that there will be some known connections (e.g. dark skin = less likely to get skin cancer; blue eyes = more likely to get certain eye problems; v. tall = more back problems) but not that many. Also, there may as Mrs B suggests be some more complex connections too - hopefully tamum might know more.

I think this has already been answered admirably! I guess the only thing to add, really, is that all of these traits are determined by multiple genes. If nose shape, say, was encoded by a single gene, and sporting ability was encoded by another single gene, then it would be entirely possible that they might happen to be linked, i.e. on the same chromosome. As it is, though, they all need multiple genes scattered around the genome, so the chances of actual complex traits being linked are pretty minimal. Having said that, as MrsB says, there may be stuff we just don't know yet

Thanks very much for that tamum.