Ever wonder when you see a couple with a red-headed child and neither parent has red hair if perhaps the mailman was involved?
No need to wonder anymore as it’s not that unusual, and for any doubting parents of a ginger haired child, you can relax a bit.
According to the Jan. 29, Dailymail, a simple DNA test that can identify carriers will soon be available.
The British paper reports that the test will be on hand at a live exhibition in London called “Who Do You Think You Are?”
Dr Jim Wilson, chief scientist at BritainsDNA, the makers of the test, said, “Through a simple saliva test to determine deep ancestry, we can also identify whether an individual is a carrier of any of the three common red-head variants in the gene MC1R.”
It is estimated that about 40 percent of the population carry the red-head gene variant without having red hair themselves. “This means that families can carry a variant for generations, and when one carrier has children with another carrier, a red-headed baby can appear seemingly out of nowhere,” Wilson said.
Approximately one in 200 of the world’s population has red hair – which calculates to an estimated 40 million “carrot-tops.”
So stop giving the mailman a bad rap!
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