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View submission: How do genes get passed down?
One fundamental point that hasn't been made is that everyone has 2 copies of every gene because they (normally) have two copies of every chromosome. We get one copy from each parent (the chromosomes in the sperm and the chromosomes in the egg). Each parent also has two copies of every chromosome, but the individual single chromosomes they pass on to their offspring are a mix of their chromosomes due to a process called recombination. Recombination occurs in meiosis, when cells duplicate and then split into 4 daughter cells, each with one copy of each of the chromosomes. So you have a gene from your mother and a gene from your father in your genome. How those two copies are expressed and the characteristics of the proteins they code for will form the genetic basis of your traits. The environment also plays a role in how the genes are expressed and the activity of their products.
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