Gapless Explanation

The Fugate’s are a family that lived in a rural portion of Kentucky in the 1800’s. Within this family a
mother and father produced children where some had some normal skin and some had a bluish tint. These physical
characteristics which come from internal information are passed down to their offspring. When these traits are
passed down a combination of one trait from one parent and one from another combine to make the offspring
characteristics. These traits can show themselves as a combination of the most seen characteristic or a characteristic
that may not be seen as often. This does not only refer to physical characteristics but can also control things such as
lactase persistence, sex, and metabolism. These traits can occur in a population in a 50:50, 75:25, or 100:0 ratio
randomly. Passing down characteristics is a random process meaning that their children can have a few different
ways their traits are expressed. The trait can either be all the winning traits, a winning and losing that expresses a
winning, or all losing. One thing from the parent and one from another parent come together and can produce a child
that is all winning, has a winning and losing, or all losing. When it is not seen as often there is one that is controlling
the expression of the trait while one is not being expressed. Within the Fugate’s the bluish tint is not seen in every
generation or every individual. This means what is causing this trait to be passed down is the rare/losing (or not seen
as often) trait to be expressed. Since some of the Fugate children have the losing trait this means that the parents are
a combination of the winning and losing trait. In order for only some children to have the bluish tint to their skin the
parents must have the winning and losing trait or the trait itself. The ancestry of the Fugate’s shows that this trait is
not seen in every single generation making the blue skin rare in the individual.
These traits/characteristics are not only limited to what can be seen with the naked eye, but can also be for
things that need to happen within the body to function properly. The information for this blood disorder is contained
within the nucleus and is composed of molecules that code for specific things such as traits or enzymes. Within the
Fugate’s blood analysis there is a higher percentage of methemoglobin (MetHB), low oxygen saturation, and a low
percentage of cytochrome B5 reductase activity is seen when compared to the normal levels. Within the Fugate’s
DNA there is a change that causes reductase to no longer function properly. Reductase is responsible for reducing a
substance within a chemical process (gives up an electron). Reductase gives an electron to hemoglobin again so that
hemoglobin can be methemoglobin. Oxygen cannot bind to methemoglobin again causing that blue color. This
mutation of reductase means that the iron within hemoglobin is not reduced from +3 to +2 (lose an electron) which
oxygen accepts causing it to break away from the iron producing oxygen within the blood giving blood its red
coloring in a normal human without the mutation. Hemoglobin is composed of an iron (+2) atom and four oxygen
atoms. This lack of reductase is why the Fugate’s are seeing lower levels of oxygen within their blood because that
electron is not being given to the atom which would allow oxygen to be released to the blood. This lack of oxygen
release results in the blue skin color and is known as methemoglobinemia. These changes in the information within
the person causes lack of reductase activity that can be passed down from generation to generation since they can be
coded for within the person’s DNA.