dry/wet ear wax, abcc11 gene

[dhand]

Hello, i will start with the disclaimer that i am not a scientist, so please forgive me if my question seems a little... silly. However i am curious about my genetic 'anomaly'. I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on this...

 

I am white British and I have dry ear wax. (as opposed to the wet variety)

 

The gene that determines wet/dry earwax is ABCC11. This gene is recessive.

 

A Japanese team of geneticists found that only 0-3% population of Europe had dry earwax and occurs mainly in East Asia with 80-90% of the population, followed by native Americans at 30% of the population.

So my condition geographically is rare.

 

My problem is that both my parents have wet ear wax, why is it possible for me to have dry earwax if this gene is recessive?

Is it possible i have an Asian decent somewhere?

 

I look forward to your replies,

Thank you.

[supersapien]

An environmental factor can cause a mutation in a gene ex: a viral infection or exposure to radiation and maybe that is why you have got a different gene as compared to your parents.

[LawfulBlade]

Have you ever done a Punnett square? Having one copy of a dominant gene and one recessive, in a system like you're describing, would be sufficient to show the dominant trait. All this is saying is that your parents would both need to have one dominant and one recessive allele for both of them to have wet ear wax, while their child has dry. It's the same way that two brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child, or two healthy parents can have a child with cystic fibrosis.

 

This doesn't weigh in on the possibility of having Asian ancestry, as it doesn't need to. As long as the percent of the population presenting with dry is above zero, any non-zero percent is sufficient for you to have dry earwax, and no Asian ancestry. Obviously, it likewise doesn't rule out the possibility, but we won't be able to weigh in any farther than that on here.

[dhand]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply. I don't think i understand the Punnett square correctly. Im looking at the wiki page on this and im not sure how an organism can both have Bb alleles at the same time. If my parents both have dry earwax i thought this meant both my parent have B alleles only, or do they also carry the ressessive gene, b.

 

Im going to have to research the subject a little better.

[Psycho]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply. I don't think i understand the Punnett square correctly. Im looking at the wiki page on this and im not sure how an organism can both have Bb alleles at the same time. If my parents both have dry earwax i thought this meant both my parent have B alleles only, or do they also carry the ressessive gene, b.

 

Im going to have to research the subject a little better.

Primarily what he is saying is that your parents are Bb x Bb (one version of each) and therefore 1/4 of the time their child will be bb (You)

 

BB = 1/4 = Wet

Bb = 1/2 = Wet

bb = 1/4 = Dry

 

So if they had 100 children 75 (BB and Bb) would have wet ear wax and 25 (bb) would have dry. Also 50 (Bb) would have the ability to pass on dry ear wax while having wet ear wax and the 25 (bb) would have to pass on an allele for dry ear wax.