okay, imagine two sets of identical twins, one set female and the other male. If the males and females married each other and both sets conceived a child at the same time, would their children be identical?
2006-11-11 10:12:26 · 26 answers · asked by Funky Little Spacegirl 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
I think in the name of science someone should try it out. Do we have any identical twins here?
2006-11-11 10:19:01 · update #1
I have identical twins and was discussing this with a friend of mine who is an identical twin.
First of all, identical twins are monozygotic (from the same egg) and have the same DNA. However, they do not look exactly identical.
If a female set of identical twins married a male set of identical twins their children would genetically be brothers/sisters. (Emotionally/etc they would be cousins.) My identical twin firiend said her and her sister always thought it would be cool to marry a set of identical twins.
2006-11-11 13:39:19 · answer #1 · answered by Ali D 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. That's no more likely than a couple having two identical babies in two different pregnancies.
The genetics are the same ... both fathers have the same genes ... both mothers have the same genes ... so genetically it's the same as if both babies had the same father and mother. I.e. the two cousins would be genetically as close as any two siblings (e.g. you and your sister or your brother).
What are the odds that two children from the same mother and father, different pregnancies, would be identical? Well, dad would have to have provided an identical sperm cell, and mom an identical egg cell, in both pregnancies. What are the odds of that? Well, since a sperm cell has 23 chromosomes, one chosen at random from 23 pairs of chromosomes in dad's cells, dad can theoretically make 2^23 different types of sperm cells (23 twos all multiplied together). The same with mom.
So the odds are 1 in 2^23 * 2^23 = 1 in 2^46. That's *astronomically*small ... but there is that chance.
2006-11-11 18:14:34 · answer #2 · answered by secretsauce 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think there'd be a degree of similarity.
This is not the same so I'll try not to over complicate things as it's a different situation but you might find it interesting.
My Gran's brother married my Grandads sister. One couple had 13 kids and the other 11 and my Mum said that out of all the children some of the cousins looked more alike than they did their siblings! So if that happened with non-identical brother/sister marrying the same it'd could be well freaky with twins!
2006-11-11 18:32:42 · answer #3 · answered by Bettie Page 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There cannot be a set of identical twins that are a boy and a girl. Only 2 boys, or 2 girls, because their chromosomes are the same so the genes wouldn't change for two different sexes.
2006-11-11 18:25:53 · answer #4 · answered by turbosherp70 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is possible but very unlikely. At college we saw a film about this - two set of identical twins married to each other. Each couple had two children but not were identical, although we were told that the cousins were as genetically close as ordinary siblings. This would pose a problem it they wanted to marry! By law you can marry your first cousin.
2006-11-11 18:20:33 · answer #5 · answered by nettyone2003 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer to that would be no. Even though each set of parents is identical the egg and sperm from each of the parents would be different. Each set of parents wouldn't produce sperm and an egg that were genetically identical. So there would be similarities in the children but they would not be identical.
2006-11-11 18:21:56 · answer #6 · answered by elaine.king79@btinternet.com 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No - they would be like any normal siblings though. That is, the genetic mix of both sets of parents would be identical, so the children of each would be genetically brothers and sisters to each other. But one set of parents has children that are not identical to each other, so these wouldn't be either.
2006-11-11 18:14:08 · answer #7 · answered by Older&Wiser 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No i don't think so..although the twins will have same genetic material..when they divide..they divide by meiosis..it produces a haploid number of chromosomes. When the male and female genetic material meet..they make the diploid number and it starts replicating. The child characteristics r due to the alleles in the chromosomes and there are 4 possible combos. Basically it would be unlikely they wud b same..1 in 16 chance i think. (1 in 4 for one characteristic in one baby..1 in 4 for for same in other baby..so 1 in 16 for both to b same) Forgive me but my bio is a bit hazy..lol :) hope that helps
2006-11-11 18:21:34 · answer #8 · answered by Zeb Zeb Zeb 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Twins derived from the same fertilized ovum that at an early stage of development becomes separated into independently growing cell aggregations, giving rise to two individuals of the same sex, identical genetic makeup, and closely similar appearance.
2006-11-11 20:54:19 · answer #9 · answered by nilo2simple_dee 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. I hate to get all biological on you but you have recessive and dominant alleles in your genes. In sperm and eggs you have half of your genetic information stored in order to create genetically different offspring, it creates variation. So identical twins may carry dominant and recessive traits, the recessive traits will not show themselves in the twin, but may appear in the offspring if passed on genetically because the dominant allele will not be present unless produced by the other partner. So the offspring will be different. I don't think I've described that very well but it's not easy without diagrams.
2006-11-11 18:40:08 · answer #10 · answered by Katri-Mills 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋