Genetic Roots

Yesterday, while I sat paitiently in the waiting area of Inland Imaging for my annual mammogram appointment {so much fun!} I picked up an issue of National Geographic and started flipping through photos of erupting volcanoes, wild horses and smiling faces from around the world. A one page article entitled, Red Alert, caught my eye. The article, short but to the point, claimed that natural redheads would become extinct by the year 2100!  The article went on to say that only 2% of the world's population possesses natural red hair and it is only a matter of time before the gene responsible for "gingers", as they used to be called, just disappears. Being a natural redhead myself, I was quiet alarmed by this report. What would the world become without redheads? I did a little research and found that a mutation of the MC1R gene is responsible for red hair and the other traits that go with it; freckles, fair skin, being prone to skin cancer and light sensitivity. To become a redhead both parents need to pass on two copies of this MC1R gene to their offspring. Some people can be carriers of the gene, possessing one functioning and one mutant version {I think the word altered or perfected would be a better description for this gene}. Carrier's children have a one in four chance of becoming a redhead. This is where the random, out of nowhere redhead comes from causing much confusion for some families. I'm assuming that I posses this gene since both my parents have natural red hair but because I only had three children I didn't get to test the 1 in 4 theory. I'll always wonder if that fourth child would have been a redhead! I don't think we need to worry, really, about the decline of the redhead because in 2006 Americans spent $123 million on red hair dye. Long live the redhead!!!

Images brought to you by, The Art of Being a Redhead