Are Genetics Responsible for Allergies? :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Are contagious science Responsible for Allergies? A Study In Identical TwinsEveryone has either suffered from some kind of allergy, or knows somebody who has suffered from allergies. Allergies are the source of cranky symptoms, ranging from a painless skin rash to life-threatening breathing problems. For years, researchers wee been trying to find out the source of these allergies. Some have suggested that environmental factors or early exposure to certain foods nooky cause allergies after in life, while others say that allergies are caused by genetics. To test the latter(prenominal) theory, many researchers study identical parallel to see if sets of twins partake in allergies. If both twins were to share a particular allergy, than this may parent that allergies are genetic.To completely fancy the remainder of this essay, one must understand the difference between identical twins and fraternal twins. Twin zygosity is the genetic relationship of twins. There are two types of t wins monozygotic twins, as intumesce known as identical twins, and dizygotic twins, also known as fraternal twins. Identical twins have exactly identical deoxyribonucleic acid fibrils they are selfsame(prenominal) sex and they have very similar material traits. They come from one egg that is fertilized by one sperm. Some prison term after conception, the egg splits resulting in two babies. Fraternal twins however have half identical DNA that is, only one strand of the double-stranded DNA is the same. They come from two individual eggs that are fertilized by two individual sperms. They are either same sex or different sex, and are just like siblings of same parents born at different times. There are other kinds of twins as well for example, mirror-image twins, polar body twins, and half-identical twins. These names refer to the time that the egg splits in identical twins. This essay, however, will deal with only identical and fraternal twins (5). The question now is, Are ident ical twins allergic to the same things? Since identical twins have exactly identical DNA, the sharing of allergies can shed some light on the role of genetics in allergies. All sorts of food allergies affect eight part of children and two percent of adults in the United States. Allergic reactions happen because ones immune system overreacts to weak foods that are ordinarily harmless to the general population (7). An allergy bear upon many children and adults recently in the United States is an allergy to peanuts. In the termination few years, tremendous amounts of people have developed this allergy, which seems, in nearly cases, to be very severe.