What Are the Genetic Factors That Affect Human Growth and Development?
One more key element of human growth and development left to explore is genetics. Genetics influences the speed and way in which people develop, though other factors, such as parenting, education, experiences, and socioeconomic factors, are also at play. The multiple genetic factors that affect human growth and development include genetic interactions and sex chromosome abnormalities.
Genetic Interactions
Genes can act in an additive way or sometimes conflict with one another. For example, a child with one tall parent and one short parent may end up between the two of them, at average height. Other times, genes follow a dominant-recessive pattern. If one parent has brown hair and the other has red hair, the red hair gene is the dominant gene if their child has red hair.
Gene-Environment Interactions
Humans’ genetic information is always interacting with the environment, and sometimes this can impact development and growth. For example, if a child in utero is exposed to drugs, the child’s cognitive abilities ental process. In addition, even if a child’s genes would indicate a tall height, if that child experiences poor nutrition as children, it may impact their height.
Sex Chromosome Abnormalities
Sex chromosome abnormalities impact as many as 1 in 500 births. The following syndromes are examples of sex chromosome abnormalities that can impact development:
- Klinefelter syndrome is the presence of an extra X chromosome in males, which can cause physical characteristics such as decreased muscle mass and reduced body hair and may cause learning disabilities.
