(Off Topic) genetics and baldness

[Garson O'Toole]

  Thanks to Alison Murie for the information about genetics and
baldness. I think that the genetics of human baldness is complex and
not well understood, but recently progress has been made. Below is an
excerpt from a Mayo Clinic web page that states that heredity on both
sides of the family is relevant. (Androgenetic alopecia is commonly
known as male pattern baldness.) Below that is an excerpt from a 2008
report about research that has identified genes linked to baldness
located on chromosome 20. This is not an X or Y chromosome.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hair-loss/DS00278/DSECTION=causes

Heredity likely plays a key role. A history of androgenetic alopecia
on either side of your family increases your risk of balding. Heredity
also affects the age at which you begin to lose hair and the
developmental speed, pattern and extent of your baldness.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/10/12/researchers.discover.baldness.gene.1.7.men.risk
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/13/healthmag.baldness.genes/index.html

Researchers have long been aware of a genetic variant on the X
chromosome that was linked to male pattern baldness, Richards said.
  "That's where the idea that baldness is inherited from the mother's
side of the family comes from," he explained. "However it's been long
recognized that that there must be several genes causing male pattern
baldness. Until now, no one could identify those other genes. If you
have both the risk variants we discovered on chromosome 20 and the
unrelated known variant on the X chromosome, your risk of becoming
bald increases sevenfold."


On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 4:54 PM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: genetics
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Apr 29, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: genetics
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 4/29/2010 02:59 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
>>> Women carry the gene; men express it.
>>
>> Alison,
>>
>> Can you remind me how a gene carried by only one gender becomes
>> "expressed" in the other?  (I assume that if (only) women carry the
>> gene, it must be in the Y chromosome.)
>>
>> Joel
> ~~~~~~~
> It would have to be carried on the X, or a woman wouldn't have it.
> Presumably it is dominant, or there would need to be two, one from
> each parent.  The mechanism may be more complicated, controlled by
> more than one pair of genes.  I'm no geneticist, just parroting stuff
> I read somewhere,  confirmed by my biologist husband.
> AM
>
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