你是否想过，自己究竟哪一点比较像妈妈，哪一点比较像爸爸呢？诸如此类的问题在科学家眼中也是很好的研究课题哦，今天就来看看目前为止能够得到的推论吧。
Here's why men can't blame their mothers for their receding hairline anymore.
看看这篇文章就知道，再也不能把自己发际线日益堪忧的锅甩给母亲的基因了。
Genetic inheritance
基因遗传
Do you have your mom's button nose? Did your dad pass on the curse of sneezing in bright sunlight? And where did your baby's red, curly hair come from when there hasn't been a redhead in your family for generations? These questions may sound simple but the answers get complicated fast. Why? Because the science of genetic inheritance is complicated, says Dawn Allain, licensed genetic counselor and director of the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “It's nearly impossible to tease out exactly where each of your traits came from,” she explains. “Most traits are influenced by many different genes and you inherit some from each parent.” Plus, there's the influence your environment plays; just because you have a gene for a certain trait doesn't always mean you'll end up with it, she adds.
你继承了妈妈的鹰钩鼻吗？你继承了爸爸在强光下打喷嚏的情况吗？当家族几代人都没出现过红头发的时候，你孩子的红色卷发是从哪里来的呢？这些问题听起来简单，但答案很快就变得复杂起来。为什么？因为基因遗传的科学很复杂——俄亥俄州州立大学威克斯纳医学中心遗传咨询研究生项目主任、持证遗传顾问道恩·阿兰如是说。她解释道：“想要梳理出你的每个特征到底遗传自哪里几乎是不可能的事。大多数特征都是受多个基因的影响，是遗传自父母双方的。” 此外还有环境影响，拥有某种特征的基因并不意味着这种特征最后一定能表现出来——她补充道。
How you inherit traits
特征是如何继承的
Still, it's fun to ask those questions and while there aren't many detailed answers, there are a few basic things genetics can tell you about traits you inherit from your mom and those you got from our dad, Allain says. But first, you need to know how inheritance works.“There are three main ways you can inherit traits from your parents,” she explains. First is through a dominant gene—if you inherit a dominant gene you will develop that trait. Take eye color, for example. If either of your parents have brown eyes, you likely will have brown eyes as this is a dominant trait. Second is through a recessive gene—both parents have to have the recessive gene for you to have that trait. For instance, if you have blue eyes then both of your parents must carry a gene for blue eyes, even if their eye color isn't blue. Lastly, there are X-linked traits which are found only on the X chromosome and are passed on through the mother.
尽管如此，这些问题还是很有趣的，虽然没有特别详细的答案，但遗传学可以告诉你基本信息，比如哪些特征遗传自母亲，哪些又遗传自父亲，阿兰说。但是首先，你需要了解继承的原理。她解释道：“继承父母特征的方式有三种。”一是显性基因——如果你继承了一个显性基因，你就会形成这种特征。以眼睛的颜色为例。如果你的父母中有一人是棕色眼睛，你就很可能也是棕色眼睛，因为棕色眼睛是显性基因控制的。二是隐性基因——父母双方必须都拥有这种隐性基因，你才能拥有这种特质。例如，如果你是蓝色眼睛，那么你的父母必然都携带蓝色眼睛的基因，即使他们的眼睛颜色不是蓝色的。最后，还有一些与X染色体相关的特征只存在于X染色体上，并通过母亲遗传。
Your ability to lose weight
减重的能力
There are two types of fat in your body: “Good” brown fat, which increases your metabolism and helps you maintain a healthy weight, and “bad” white fat, which can cause obesity and disease if you have too much of it. Everyone has some of each type but how much brown fat you have—and therefore how high your metabolism is—may be inherited from your mom, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
在你的身体里有两种脂肪：“好的”棕色脂肪，它能促进你的新陈代谢，帮助你保持健康的体重；“坏的”白色脂肪，如果你有太多就会导致肥胖和疾病。根据发表在《自然通讯》上的一项研究，这两种脂肪每个人都有，但是你有多少棕色脂肪——由此决定的新陈代谢速度——可能是从母亲那里继承来的。
How easily you gain weight
增重的难易度
However, while mom may be helping you out with the brown fat, you can blame your dad for your white fat, the Nature Communications study found. How much fat you store, particularly around your organs may be partly determined by genes passed down from your father, the researchers said. Genetics aren't destiny when it comes to your weight, your lifestyle choices play an even bigger part.
然而，《自然通讯》的研究发现，虽然棕色脂肪的状况遗传自母亲，但白色脂肪的问题可以归咎于父亲。研究人员称，你储存了多少脂肪，尤其是在你的器官周围储存了多少脂肪，可能部分取决于遗传自父亲的基因。不过真正决定你体重的不是基因，而是生活方式哦。
Your ability to focus
集中注意力的能力
If your mother has lower levels of serotonin, a brain chemical linked to mood, then you're more likely to develop attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder later in life, according to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry. The genes, passed down from mom to kid, that impact serotonin production also seem to influence your ability to focus. Sound like you?
《美国医学会精神病学期刊》上发表的一项研究显示，如果母亲的血清素水平较低（血清素是大脑中一种与情绪有关的化学物质），那么在以后的生活中，后代更有可能患上注意力缺陷多动障碍。影响血清素产生的基因遗传自母亲，似乎也会影响到集中注意力的能力。你有这种情况吗？
If you hit puberty early
是否过早进入青春期
Puberty, and all the fun milestones that come along with it, like acne, cracking voices, or getting your period while wearing white shorts, is a rite of passage many children go through on their way to becoming an adult. Both parents’ genetics play a part in when exactly you start the big change but if you started puberty early—before age eight in girls and nine in boys—that may be due to a gene you inherit from your father, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Specifically, they identified that a genetic mutation leads to a type of premature puberty, meaning that if you have it, you'll have to deal with all that stuff before any of your friends.
青春期，以及随之而来的所有有趣的里程碑，比如痤疮、声音嘶哑、穿白内裤时来月经，是许多孩子走向成人的必经之路。父母双方的基因决定了在何时你开始向成人转变，但是如果你的青春期开始得特别早——女孩八岁前、男孩九岁前——这可能就要归因于遗传自父亲的基因，一项发表在《新英格兰医学杂志》上的研究做出了这样的推断。具体来说，他们发现某个特定的基因突变会导致这种类型的早熟，也就是说，如果你携带这种突变基因，你就得比你的朋友们更早面对这些里程碑了。
Your laugh lines
笑纹
How well you age and how much you show it is determined on a cellular level by the accumulation of damage over your lifetime to your mitochondrial DNA—genes you only get from your mom. Environmental factors like sun exposure, smoking, and an unhealthy diet can cause mtDNA damage but some of the damage can be inherited from your mother, according to a study published in Nature. The more mtDNA with mutations you inherit from your mother, the faster you age and the more it will show in traits like wrinkles and gray hair.
人体变老的程度、以及衰老的表现程度强弱，是在细胞水平上决定的，是由一生中线粒体DNA基因损伤的积累决定的，而线粒体DNA基因只能遗传自母亲。根据发表在《自然》杂志上的一项研究，阳光照射、吸烟和不健康的饮食习惯等环境因素会导致线粒体DNA损伤，但其中一些损伤母亲可以遗传下去。你从母亲那里继承到的突变线粒体DNA越多，你变老的速度就越快，身体的衰老在皱纹和白发等特征上的表现也就越多。
Your mood
情绪
Mothers can influence your mood in many ways and it's not just by grounding you or serving broccoli three times a week. The structure of the part of the brain known as the corticolimbic system, which controls emotional regulation and plays a role in mood disorders like depression, is more likely to be passed down from mothers to daughters than from mothers to sons or from fathers to children of either gender, according to a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience. This may mean that daughters at least partly inherit their mood from their mothers.
母亲可以在很多方面影响你的情绪，不仅仅是罚你禁足或者一周给你吃三次西兰花这些事。据一项发表在《神经科学杂志》上的研究称，大脑中有一个被称为corticolimbic系统的结构，它负责控制情绪调节，在抑郁等情绪障碍中都发挥着作用。而这种基因在母女之间最有可能完成继承，母子、父子、父女之间都没有这么大的可能性。这也许意味着，女儿至少在一定程度上遗传了母亲的情绪。
The genders of your children
后代的性别
Obviously the genes from you and your spouse determine the gender of your children. But did you know that which gender genes you pass on may be inherited from your father? This is how it works: A man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters, according to a study published in Evolutionary Biology.
显然，你和你配偶的基因决定了你们后代的性别。但是你知道吗？你更有可能把哪一个性别的基因遗传给后代，这件事有可能是继承自你父亲的。这一机制发挥作用的结果就是：发表在《进化生物学》上的一项研究表明，兄弟多的男人更有可能生儿子，而姐妹多的男人更有可能生女儿。
Your memory
记忆力
It's been known for some time that a family history of Alzheimer's disease significantly increases the risk for developing the illness, but a new study, published in Biological Psychiatry, found that the genetic risk primarily comes from your mother. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia later in life, affecting nearly six million people in America alone, so it's important to know what factors increase your risk—including your mother's medical history—so you can start taking steps to protect your brain health now, the researchers noted.
众所周知，有阿尔茨海默氏症家族史的人患此病的风险会大大增加，但发表在《生物精神病学》上的一项新研究发现，家族病史的遗传风险主要来自母亲。阿尔茨海默氏症是老年痴呆最常见的原因，仅在美国就有近600万人受其影响，所以了解增加患病风险的因素很重要——包括母亲的病史——这样你就可以从现在开始采取措施保护大脑健康，研究人员指出。
Your fertility
生育能力
A woman's fertility may be impacted by a gene she inherited from her father, according to a study published in Science. In a normal egg cell, a part of the cell called the centrioles is eliminated as part of the natural development process. However, if the centrioles aren't eliminated—often due to a genetic dysfunction, passed on by her dad—then the woman is sterile, researchers explained.
发表在《科学》杂志上的一项研究表明，女性的生育能力可能受到遗传自父亲的基因影响。在正常的卵细胞中，被称为中心粒的部分会在自然发育过程中被消除。然而，研究人员称，如果中心粒没有被自然消除——通常是由于继承自父亲的遗传功能障碍——那么这个女性就没有生育能力。
Your hairline?
发际线？
You may have heard that how and when a man loses his hair is due to an inherited trait from his mom's side. However, a study, published in PLoS Genetics, of over 55,000 men has proved this to be a myth. Researchers found 287 independent genetic signals that were linked to male-patterned hair loss and while 40 were only found on the X chromosome, meaning they were inherited on the maternal side, the rest were scattered throughout DNA inherited from both patterns. Interestingly, some genes associated with hair loss also seem to be associated with an increased risk for heart disease in men. While some traits are inherited, others are learned.
你可能听说过，决定男性的脱发情况和时间的基因遗传自母亲。然而，一项发表在《公共科学图书馆·遗传学》杂志上的超过55000位男性参与的研究证明这不是真的。研究人员发现了287个与男性脱发情况相关的独立基因，其中40个只在X染色体上存在，这意味着它们是由母亲遗传的，其余的则分散在从父母双方遗传而来的DNA中。有趣的是，一些与脱发相关的基因似乎也与男性患心脏病风险的上升有关，其中有些特征是遗传的，有些是后天获得的。
看完这篇文章，是不是发现了什么不得了的事情呢？快跟父母分享你的发现吧！
本文为百度翻译原创内容
网友评论