traits

Are our traits irreversibly chiseled in our DNA or they are results of nurture? Actually, the correct answer is “all of the above”. Some traits, the color of our eyes, skin, and hair, come exclusively from our genes and our parents pass their genetic traits to us. However, other traits like reading, abstract art appreciation, and good writing skills are absorbed from the environment around us and our family, school, neighborhood etc. But this is a text about our genes, so let’s focus on the biological side of our traits.

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According to the results of my ancestry composition test, I was predestined to have my very dark eyes (conforming to the highest likelihood of 29%). Nonetheless, since my genotype is AG, my children may have blue or green eyes. My hair is dark brown, again reiterating the largest probability of my genetic composition (67%). Also, my hair is wavy, and it lightens when exposed to the sun, a natural hair dye without an expensive walk to the hair salon (73% of that specific genotype). As for my skin color, the genetic analysis is again precise when predicting that I have light beige to olive skin, but the skin color also depends on the environment (exposure to the sun) and lifestyle (vitamin-D rich diet).

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As the saying goes “like father, like daughter”, so it seems that through my father I inherited my flat feet, my aversion to cilantro, so please no cilantro soup or salad for me, and in the summer me and my father are buffet dinner for the mosquitos. “Thanks Dad!” says my cynical dark side (again, another trait of my father, but this time acquired through nurture).

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My mother gave me several of the Neanderthal traits, such as hoarding of rarely used items and dandruff, but luckily the bad sense of direction skipped a generation in my case, since my mom still needs a city guide or Google Maps even for our own neighborhood. I have my mother to thank for the motion sickness and in my case, it happens in cars while my mom has “cheerful” boat rides. Probably, motion sickness is the reason why we stayed perpetually on the Balkans.

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Both my parents love sweet snacks (we are constantly out of Nutella especially because of my father’s late night kitchen raids) and my sweet tooth is another trait written in my genes (55%).