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More like mom or dad? Here's why answering is not so easy
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Many people wonder whether they are more their mother or father's child, according to Medical Xpress. And the answer isn't so clear. - photo by Payton Davis
Conversation in regards to family lineage often turns to whether people share more in common with their mother or father, but hopefully they don't expect a simple answer, according to Medical Xpress.

That's because as far as genetics go, people carry more of their mother's genes than their father's, Madeleine Beekman wrote for Medical Xpress.

But a study from earlier this year reported genes from fathers are more dominant, Lamiat Sabin wrote for The Independent.

The bottom line: According to Medical Xpress, you may look more like your dad but are "more related" to your mom.

Medical Xpress indicated people only receive little organelles that live within cells the mitochondria from their mother. Mitochondria are energy-producing factories of cells, and without them, a cell wouldn't be able to generate food.

Carrying mitochondria from just one parent happens for a reason, Medical Xpress' piece read.

"Imagine what could happen if organelles were derived from both parents, the four grandparents, and so on ad infinitum," according to the piece. "This would set the scene for a genetically variable population of organelles in every cell. And this could be bad news because now different clonal lineages of mtDNA are competing with each other."

Despite having more of their mother's genes, people "use" DNA from their fathers in a greater way, Madlen Davies wrote for Daily Mail. That finding came from a University of North Carolina study that "was the first to show that mammals are more genetically similar to their fathers than mothers."

Knowing people sway toward their fathers genes-wise is more than just a conversation starter, study author Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena told Daily Mail.

According to The Independent, Pardo-Manuel de Villena noted how knowing as much could affect treating people with health issues.

"We know that mammals express more genetic variance from the father," The Independent quoted the study author as saying. "So imagine that a certain kind of genetic mutation is bad. If inherited from the mother, the gene wouldn't be expressed as much as it would be if it were inherited from the father."

So is taking more genes from mom but using dad's more easy to understand?

Then throwing grandparents' influence on genetics into the mix might incite a headache.

Razib Khan wrote for Slate "the fraction from grandparents is governed by chance," and there's a 1 in 4 million chance all maternal and paternal chromosomes could come from a single grandparent.

Still, Slate noted an example that a child could derive 22 percent of genome from the mother's mom, 28 percent from the mother's father, 23 percent from the dad's mom and 27 percent from the dad's father.

Knowing all this could yield information on the genetic connection to other family members, according to Slate.

"And you could know exactly how closely your child is related to each of its uncles and aunts," the report read. "This isn't imaginary science fiction, it is science fact."

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