superboy

[Peijen]

I am sure you all have read the story by now, but this has been puzzling me for a while

Other members of the child's family are reportedly stronger than average, but only the mother was available for DNA testing. His mother had been a professional athlete prior to becoming pregnant.
...
They discovered the mother had a mutation in one copy of the myostatin gene and that both copies of the baby's myostatin gene were defective. Humans inherit one copy of each gene from each parent.

And it finally hit me yesterday, his parents are probably related!!! Either that or when his cells divides at early stage the gene did not separate correctly (forgot what it's call but I am sure alan can think of it).

[Alan]

It's called nondisjunction, which results in sperm or eggs with 0 or 2 copies of the same chromosome. Which means that if the kid has 2 copies of the mutant gene but none of the wild-type it's very unlikely that nondisjunction is responsible, because it would have also had to happen in the father's sperm that fertilized the egg. Plus nondisjunction tends to cause some major developmental disorders, eg. Down's Syndrome.

It's more likely that like you said, the father is related to the mother. I remember reading that they refused to comment on the identity of the father so that might actually be the case.

But it's also possible that the mother somehow met a man who was also heterozygous for the mutant allele.

[Peijen]

But it's also possible that the mother somehow met a man who was also heterozygous for the mutant allele.

see, that's what puzzled me. In most cases mutation occurs once, and it get passed around. It might not be outright incest, but it might be a distant relative (one she doesn't even realize).

[Alan]

But it's also possible that the mother somehow met a man who was also heterozygous for the mutant allele.

see, that's what puzzled me. In most cases mutation occurs once, and it get passed around. It might not be outright incest, but it might be a distant relative (one she doesn't even realize).

I think they meant that the mother had a mutant allele, not necessarily that the mutation occured during the mother's lifetime. Because for the mother to have undergone a mutation that affected every cell in her body is probably infinitesimally rare. Now if her egg had the gene that mutated, that's when a new mutation gets passed down.

So I think her family probably carries the recessive mutant gene, and only now have they found someone else (or just one of them heh) with the same mutant gene, so they were able to have a homozygous mutant child.

And yeah, it doesn't have to be incest, just a carrier of the gene, which could even be a distant cousin.

[Jonathan]

But it's also possible that the mother somehow met a man who was also heterozygous for the mutant allele.

see, that's what puzzled me. In most cases mutation occurs once, and it get passed around. It might not be outright incest, but it might be a distant relative (one she doesn't even realize).

I think they meant that the mother had a mutant allele, not necessarily that the mutation occured during the mother's lifetime. Because for the mother to have undergone a mutation that affected every cell in her body is probably infinitesimally rare. Now if her egg had the gene that mutated, that's when a new mutation gets passed down.

So I think her family probably carries the recessive mutant gene, and only now have they found someone else (or just one of them heh) with the same mutant gene, so they were able to have a homozygous mutant child.

And yeah, it doesn't have to be incest, just a carrier of the gene, which could even be a distant cousin.

Homozygous Mutant Child would be a good name for a band, or possibly a super hero. Which, incidently, is one of the two main career options for the kid, the other being a stint in the WWE.

[Alan]

He'd have to pick a new name though. I think WWE fans would just call him "Homo".

[Jonathan]

Probably he could make a really bitchin' German super hero name by starting with Homozygous Mutant Child and translating it. That would work for the WWE, too.

[Alan]

This is what Babelfish gives me for Homozygous Mutant Child:

Homozygous Durch Mutation entstehende Variation Kind

Google gives me:

Kind Durch Mutation entstehende Variation Homozygous

A search on a German dictionary gives me Erbrein, Homozygot, and Reinerbig for Homozygous. And Eigentumsübergang, Stimmbruch, Variante, and Veränderung for Mutation.

Kind Durch Eigentumsübergang entstehende Variation Reinerbig.

Seems kind of long.

Or, if we use Maßabweichung for Variation:

Kind Durch Eigentumsübergang entstehende Maßabweichung Reinerbig.

German is kind of cool.

[Jonathan]

You're not thinking like a German.

Homozygoteigentumsübergangkind is bitchin', and it has umlauts. What more could you ask for?

[Jonathan]

You're not thinking like a German.

Homozygoteigentumsübergangkind is bitchin', and it has umlauts. What more could you ask for?

Plus, you can kinda sorta sing it to the TMNT theme song.

[Dave]

hehe, i'd be great to just pop a pill and increase your muscle mass. yay for the lazy and fat.