Murdoc Brickel, Anth 102: 1001
Field report from planet Phelineas to Captain of SS
Adventurer:
Include:
Phelineas Royal family:
SUBJECT:
Concerning the fatherhood of Katze newborn of Princess Silina.
In the question of who sired the
newborn baby of Princess Silina I have determined who has become the father
through the sacred oil ceremony. Through
the process of deductive reasoning, and using the techniques of simple
Mendelian genetics I can prove who sired the new born. Using the resources of the Royal Family Library
I was able to build a database of enough information to determine easily
identifiable physical traits and their orders of dominance, which is a characteristic of genetics that
determines which traits, or alleles, will be physically shown (Stein &
Rowe, 2014, pg. 25). The traits that I will be using are the
pointedness of the ears, the color of hair, and the texture of the skin.
First I will describe the basis of
the process by which I used to determine the father, then I will present the
evidence to support my decision. The
process of Mendelian genetics studies the pairing of two alleles, with one
usually being more predominant over the other when they are physically
expressed. This physical expression is
called the phenotype (Stein & Rowe, 2014, pg. 28). I have enclosed charts after this report
which will show in detail how this bonding process results in a combination of
possible outcomes given the genetic information of the parents. When one gene is considered dominant over
another the dominant trait is the trait that will be shown. In the case of a recessive gene, or a gene
that is less dominant, it takes a pairing of both of these recessive genes for
the trait to become visible (Boston, C., Dr.; Lecture). All
dominant traits are expressed in the charts following with a capital letter,
for example 'A'. All recessive genes are
expressed with a lower case letter for example, 'a'. There are certain traits that are less
dominant than others, and more dominant than others. For example, let us say that trait 'B' is
more dominant than trait 'a', but less dominant than trait 'C'. If we were to arrange these three traits in
their order of dominance for greatest to least it would look like 'C-B-a' , so
in pairing the 'C' and 'B' genes together 'B' would be the recessive gene. This would be written as 'Cb”, and the 'C'
gene would be expressed (Boston, 2015, Lecture).
Now I will discuss the issue of the
ears, or how pointy or rounded they are.
Through research in the library, I have determined that pointy ears have
a dominance over the trait for rounded ears.
Through speaking with the wet nurse (Wet Nurse, Interview) I was able to
determine that the Princess was a homozygous carrier of the pointy ear
trait. What this means is that both
sides of the family in the Royal Family of Phelineas had pointy ears. When it is said that someone is a homozygous
carrier of a trait, it means that both of their alleles for a gene are of the
same type (Stein & Rowe, 2014, pg. 28).
Since the pointy ears alleles are dominant, we could also refer to the Princess
as a homozygous dominant carrier. Since
both of her alleles for this trait are dominant, and she has two of them, she
could not have children without pointy ears.
This is why this trait, while it is a good point of reference that is
easy to identify, would not be a good judge of who the father is. I was not aware of this factor when I was doing
my research in the library. I have
included it in this report as a point of reference, as any future children that
the Princess may have with either of these suitors may have rounded ears. This is due to a blending of the alleles,
which is referred to as a heterozygous carrier.
This is another big word that basically means that an individual would
have a dominant and a recessive allele present in their genetic makeup (Stein &
Rowe, 2014, pg. 29).
Let us move now to the hair
genes. As we have seen, the baby is
bald. According to my research in the
Royal Family Library, this is not just because it is a new born. As you know Katze children are born with
hair, if they will have it. This
baldness is what would be referred to as a homozygous-recessive gene. This means that the child would need two of
the same recessive allele in order to have this phenotype. This occurred because both of the parents
were carriers for the baldness allele, or heterozygous with a baldness allele. The Princess has black hair, which I have
found to be the most dominant of the three hair traits. She has a bald child so she is a carrier of
the baldness allele. The potential
fathers both have silver hair. The
silver haired allele I found is less dominant than black hair, and more
dominant than baldness. The chances of
the Princess and one of the suitors having a bald headed child are among the
rarest but not out of the realm of possibilities. Since both of the potential suitors have
silver hair, we can rule this out as a determining factor as to who sired the
child. Again, I include this as an
explanation. Even though none of the
potential partners are bald, as the baby is, this does not mean that they would
not be the parents. This means that the
Princess and one or both of the suitors more than likely had a bald relative
and have passed this trait down to the infant.
Now we will move onto the skin
texture. I have noticed that there are
three distinct skin types among the Katzes, which are smooth, wrinkled, and
scaly; these are presented in their order of dominance from least dominant to
most dominant. The Princess has smooth
skin, which is a homozygous recessive genotype, or that she could only have
this skin type allele. Lord Garpheldhas
a wrinkled skin type, which means that while he may also be a carrier for a
smooth skin type gene he does not have a scaly skin type gene. Bishop Pheelex, on the other hand, does posess
a scaly skin type. This skin type gene I
found to be the most dominant among the three skin types. This means that if it were present, it would
be physically expressed, which leads me to say that Bishop Pheelex is the
father of the child. As a post note, if
the Bishop and the Princess were to have more children, they may also have
children wrinkled or smooth skin. This
is because the Bishop may be a heterozygous carrier of these genes, and with
the Princess having the most recessive of the group any other trait would take
dominance with regards to skin type (Boston, 2015, Lecture).
In conclusion, Bishop Pheelex is the
father of the baby. The Princess'
homozygous dominant pointy ear alleles mean that any child she has would also
have pointy ears. The baby’s baldness is
a result of both the Princess and Bishop Pheelex being carriers of the bald
allele. The scaliness of the baby’s skin
comes from his father Bishop Pheelex as this is a dominant gene. Something to keep in mind is that the
Princess's baby may have children with rounded ears. Another thing to keep in mind is that if the
Princess and the Bishop have another child it may have hair and a different
skin type than this baby. May prosperity
always find the Royal Family of Phelineas.
Punnett Squares
Highlighted
pairs reflect what the baby has
Ear
Shape –R=pointy r=rounded
HOMO
|
Lord
Garpheld
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
R
|
R
|
R
|
RR
|
RR
|
R
|
RR
|
RR
|
HETERO/HOMO
|
Lord
Garpheld
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
R
|
r
|
R
|
RR
|
Rr
|
R
|
RR
|
Rr
|
HETERO/HOMO
|
Bishop
Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
r
|
r
|
R
|
Rr
|
Rr
|
R
|
Rr
|
Rr
|
Phenotype 100% pointy ears
Hair
– B=black S=silver b=bald
Since
both Lord Garpheld and Bishop Pheelex have silver hair, the comparisons will be
the same for both.
HOMO
|
Lord
Garpheld/ Bishop Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
S
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bs
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bs
|
HETERO/HOMO
|
Lord
Garpheld/ Bishop Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
b
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bb
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bb
|
HOMO/HETERO
|
Lord
Garpheld/ Bishop Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
S
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bs
|
s
|
SS
|
SS
|
HETERO/HETERO
silver
|
Lord
Garpheld/ Bishop Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
b
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bb
|
s
|
SS
|
Sb
|
HOMO/HETERO
bald
|
Lord
Garpheld/ Bishop Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
S
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bs
|
b
|
Sb
|
Sb
|
HETERO/HETERO
bald
|
Lord
Garpheld/ Bishop Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
b
|
B
|
Bs
|
Bb
|
b
|
Sb
|
bb
|
Black
Hair 67% Silver Hair 29% Bald 4%
Skin
Type – S=Scaley W=Wrinkled s=smooth
HOMO/HOMO
|
Lord
Garpheld
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
W
|
W
|
s
|
Ws
|
Ws
|
s
|
Ws
|
Ws
|
HETRO/HOMO
|
Lord
Garpheld
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
W
|
s
|
s
|
Ws
|
ss
|
s
|
Ws
|
ss
|
HOMO
|
Bishop
Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
S
|
s
|
Ss
|
Ss
|
s
|
Ss
|
Ss
|
HETERO
Wrinkled/HOMO
|
Bishop
Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
w
|
s
|
Ss
|
Ws
|
s
|
Ss
|
Ws
|
HETERO
Smooth/HOMO
|
Bishop
Pheelex
|
|
Princess
Silina
|
S
|
s
|
s
|
Ss
|
ss
|
s
|
Ss
|
ss
|
Scaled skin 40% Wrinkled skin 40% Smooth skin 20%
Bishop Pheelex is the father of
the child.
References
Boston,
C. , Dr. (Director) (2015, January 27- May 13). Physical Anthropology. Lecture
conducted from Truckee Meadows Community College .
Stein,
P., & Rowe, B. (2014). Physical
anthropology (Eleventh ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Wet
nurse to Phelineas Royal family [Personal interview].(n.d.)
Phelineas
Royal family personal library.
