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Name: Xio
Status: Other
Grade:  9-12
Location: N/A
Country: United States
Date: June 2005
Question:
My daughter can curl her tongue but my husband and I cannot. She doubted herself as an adopted child because she searched everywhere saying tongue curling is inherited. Why?


Replies:
In view of the fact that identical twins aren't always both tongue rollers, tongue rolling is not a simple Mendelian trait. Do a search on Google under "tongue rolling genetics" and you will see many articles showing that tongue rolling is not a good example of Mendelian inheritance.

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/tongroll.html

Ron Baker, Ph.D.


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