I heard from my Health teacher that it would be impossible to populate the human race with just 2 people (like the bible) because of the lack of chromosomes or something. Please explain it in more detail. i really wanna learn, but none of this crap is in my text book.
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The problem is that everyone has a batch of deleterious recessive alleles, and if you mate with someone closely related to you (as would have to happen in a population trying to rebuild from 2 individuals) then the chances are greatly increased that your mate will have some of the same deleterious recessive alleles you do, thus resulting in various inherited diseases and disabilities, generally including infertility.
What's an allele?: Alleles are differing versions of genes. A gene is a particular area of DNA that produces a protein or RNA molecule that in turn has a physiological effect on the organism. In any given population there are likely to be several different versions of any given gene - with slight differences in the sequence of bases (A's, C's, G's and T's) that comprise that section of the DNA molecule. The different alleles can produce differing physiological effects.
What's a deleterious recessive allele?: A deleterious allele is one that produces a deleterious effect. A recessive allele is one that only produces it's particular effect if an individual has two of them - one that came from the mother and one that came from the father. So that's why most of us have some deleterious recessive alleles we don't know about - they don't produce their deleterious effects in us because we don't have two such alleles for the same gene.
So now picture having a baby with someone who isn't closely related. You've got some rare deleterious recessives on some genes, and your mate has some deleterious recessives on other genes. But they're probably not on the same genes, because all those deleterious recessives are rare. So the baby probably won't get two deleterious recessives for the same gene.
What's an allele?: Alleles are differing versions of genes. A gene is a particular area of DNA that produces a protein or RNA molecule that in turn has a physiological effect on the organism. In any given population there are likely to be several different versions of any given gene - with slight differences in the sequence of bases (A's, C's, G's and T's) that comprise that section of the DNA molecule. The different alleles can produce differing physiological effects.
What's a deleterious recessive allele?: A deleterious allele is one that produces a deleterious effect. A recessive allele is one that only produces it's particular effect if an individual has two of them - one that came from the mother and one that came from the father. So that's why most of us have some deleterious recessive alleles we don't know about - they don't produce their deleterious effects in us because we don't have two such alleles for the same gene.
So now picture having a baby with someone who isn't closely related. You've got some rare deleterious recessives on some genes, and your mate has some deleterious recessives on other genes. But they're probably not on the same genes, because all those deleterious recessives are rare. So the baby probably won't get two deleterious recessives for the same gene.
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