The Red Head Conundrum

To those of you who keep asking or predicting that we will have a red headed baby based solely on the fact that Mark is a red head, here is a science lesson in genetics for you.

RED HAIR GENE (rr):

The following possible situations resulting or not resulting in redheaded offspring...

1. Both parents are carriers. As shown in this punnett square, father (yellow) and mother (pink) contribute one of two possible alleles (R or r) of the MC1R variants to the baby. As a result, there is a 25% chance that any of their child will inherit two r alleles from each parents and will be a redhead.

2. One parent (e.g., mother) is a redhead and the father is a carrier. In this case, every child will inherit one r allele from their mother and has an equal chance of inheriting the R or r allele from the father. Therefore, the chance of each child being redheaded is 50/50.

3. If both parents have red hair, then all offspring will be red headed (rr).

4. If one of the parent does not carry the red hair (r) allele, then no matter what the other parent's genotype (RR, Rr, or rr), none of their children will have red hair.

So in conclusion, I do know know if I am a carrier of a red head gene so there is a 50% chance only if I carry a gene somewhere, and if I don't carry a gene then there is no chance. Mystery solved.