what are our chances of having red-haired kids?

Question

Hi there! I'm a female of Lebanese (Mediterranean) descent with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, marrying a man of north European descent (Irish-German-Polish) with flaming Cheeto-red hair and brown eyes. What are our chances of having red-haired kids?

My mother and dad: Both dark brown hair, dark brown eyes. Interestingly, due to the European influence to the Lebanese population over the centuries, my dad's dad had platinum blonde hair and ice blue eyes, and at least a couple of my great-grandparents had dirty blonde hair and hazel or green eyes.

His mother and dad: Mom has green eyes and auburn hair. Dad had blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. (His brother has blue eyes and dirty blonde hair.)

Thanks for your input! This will be fun. :-)

Answer 1

The genetics of hair is still under study, but it is believed that there are two sets of genes controlling 2 types of pigment.

One set controls brown/blond, or really, the darkness of the hair. The brown is dominant. The other set is red/not red, where the not red is dominant. If someone is brown/brown and red/red, they will show brown because the darker pigment will override the red pigment.

It sounds like your husband is homozygous recessive in both genes, which makes this easier. He's likely bbrr (blond and red) so he shows red hair.

Your mom is likely BB/RR while your dad may either be BB/RR OR Bb/RR. This means you are either BB/RR or Bb/RR (50% chance each although it's more likely that you're the former as you have dark brown hair). So if the current model of hair genetics holds up, you children would be either be:
Bb/Rr or bb/Rr. This means they'll at most be heterozygous for red hair and they'll carry the gene, but won't show it. Since hair coloring seems to work by incomplete dominance, they'll likely have lighter brown hair even if they're Bb and might be dirty blond if they're bb. Unfortunately, they probably won't have red hair unless someone in your family had a red hair gene that you carry.

That was fun!

Answer 2

Congratulations on the wedding!
Red hair is one of the few simple cases of one gene creating a trait. MC1R comes either in the dominant not-red or the recessive red. Your husband is clearly a homozygous red. You are unlikely to carry the gene and the brown/blond hair color comes from a different gene. You are probably carrying the not-red gene. Your husband likely also carries the blond recessive. Your children could receive the blond from you, if you have it, then 1/2 your children may be blond.

Your children will all carry the red recessive so if any of them pair with someone carrying the red recessive your grandchildren could have red or reddish hair by inheriting the recessive from both parents.
If it should show up by skipping a generation into your grandchildren the red gene can influence the shade of brown or blond by giving it a red cast if it is unopposed by the not-red.
These two genes for hair color are not all there is. There are several genes to control intensity of color. Therefore, the more of the intensity genes that are dominant, the darker the hair will be and the less any reddening will show even in blond.
So blondness involves having just a few (one to two? I don't know) functioning pigment genes. For red hair you need both blondness (1 to few functional pigmenting genes) and red pigment genes, resulting in either reddish hair or really red hair.
A possible indicator of the red recessive gene's presence can be freckles. However people can have freckles who do not carry the recessive for red hair.

Answer 3

There is a less than half percent. It depends on whether the red hair is a recessive gene ( most likely ) or dominant. The dominant rules over the recessive so most likely the child will have brownish hair. There is a slight chance that he could get red hair though.

Answer 4

You would need two copies of this recessive gene. Very low prevalence in world populations.

Answer 5

you have the dominant genes witht the dark hair and dark eyes so your's will more than likely trump his rare red hair. so I'd say pretty low.

Answer 6

hahahaha i can tell you dont want fire crotch kids

I'm learning this in biology right now... the chances are 50/50 pretty much.