Answer to Question #278226 in Genetics for atenz

Question

A teenage boy asks his parents “Why do I look similar but slightly different from my brother?” Using language a layperson would understand, how would you explain to him about the key events that take place to create this genetic variation? During what process do these occur and how do they happen?

Answer 1

Brothers and sisters don't look exactly alike because everyone (including parents) actually has two copies of most of their genes. And these copies can be different. Parents pass one of their two copies of each of their genes to their kids. Which copy a child gets is totally random