Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24274010-20140303004602/@comment-24590102-20140303031506

Strictly speaking, whether "hybrids" or not, children take on the alleles of both parents but recessive alleles are only "expressed" (i.e. produce their physiological effect) in the absence of corresponding dominant alleles. The oversimplified example from high school biology is that of brown eyes and grey ("blue") eyes. Brown is the dominant characteristic and, among the heterozygous offspring of the interbreeding of brown-eyed and grey-eyed individuals with no prior mixing of this gene set (i.e. from homozygous parents), all the heterozygous offspring carry both the allele for brown eyes and the allele for grey eyes yet only exhibit brown eyes. However, when heterozygous individuals (i.e. carrying both alleles) produce issue, 25% of the offspring are brown eyed and homozygous, 25% are grey eyed and homozygous and 50% are brown eyed and heterozygous. That's the basic understanding of genetics built on Mendel's observations concerning inheritance in plant breeding. The continuing re-emergence of recessive traits observed by Mendel ultimately refutes the core eugenic claim that "inferior" dominant genetic traits kill off "superior" recessive genetic traits. Based on the facts, the usual situation we may observe is that recessive genetic traits will typically skip generations in contrast to environmental, circumstantial and cultural influences (e.g. behavioural traits) which appear to be passed down from one generation to the next but lack elements which skip generations consistently or conform to statistical distribution patterns typical of genetic systems.

Generally, due to the great number of heritable characteristics, children take on characteristics of both parents, as well as those of grandparents and older ancestors from whom the parents carry alleles. Heterozygotes take on the characteristic of the parent with the dominant allele but retain and pass down the recessive allele received from the other parent. Homozygotes will take on the characteristic of heterozygous parents only if the allele is dominant and will take on the characteristic of a grandparent or older ancestor to become a "throwback" in the event that the allele is recessive. There are some gender specific alleles which can only be carried on the X chromosome (and so are only passed down the maternal line) and some which can only be carried on the Y chromosome (and so are only passed down the paternal line). However, I think that these are the exception rather than the rule.

The basic unit of taxonomy is not any pseudoscientific term such as "type", "race" or "variety". The basic unit of taxonomy is the 'species' and each species represents or encompasses all organisms capable of viably exchanging genes with one-another. In other words, fertility of offspring proves commonality of species. The TES lore-specific case in point, of Men and Mer, is the example of the Reachmen who are cast as descendants of both. Given that the Reachmen have not died out over the course of many generations, this would indicate that, in the context of TES lore, Man and Mer are the same species. I think that you will find that terms like "variety" and "race" are problematic because they lack empirical definition and are meagrely arbitrary cultural identifiers for known set's of genetic characteristics common to people of different regions or organisms selectively bred (i.e. genetically modified) for a particular purpose.

