Heroes origin & genetics

[Kapitalist]

During the prehistoric era, a space-faring alien race arrived on Earth and performed genetic experiments on the early hominids. As an extremely long-term social experiment, they implanted dormant DNA sequences in humanity which would endow a person with superhuman abilities.

These superhuman dormant DNA sequences are contained in the majority portion of the human genome commonly known as "junk DNA" because being inactive, they do not code for any proteins. Each sequence requires a specific hormonal signal to activate.

Several centuries ago, the aliens returned and once again began experimenting on human subjects. They implanted a genetic sequence in select groups of people all over the world. The descendents of those people are known to us as the "Heroes."

Heroes possess a four gene complex that causes their brain to produce a hormone that at some point in their life (anywhere from pre-pubescence to early mid-age) interacts with the Hero's own individual stress hormones, behavior-related neurotransmitters, odor chemicals, immune system messengers, and other biochemical characteristics to create a hormonal activation signal for a superhuman dormant DNA sequence. Since the specifics of those biochemical characteristics are dependent upon a person's environment, individual genetic structure, and even emotional/psychological state, the specific hormonal activation signal produced is different in every Hero and therefore the dormant DNA sequence activated is different in every Hero. As a result, every Hero develops a relatively unique superhuman ability.

The four gene complex responsible for Hero abilities specifically involves two genes, each of which has two forms, or alleles. To be a Hero, a person must have at least one of each of the dominant alleles. A non-Hero may either have two recessive "a" alleles, or two recessive "b" alleles.

* A - Hero gene 1 (dominant)
* a - non-Hero (recessive)

* B - Hero gene 2 (dominant)
* b - non-Hero (recessive)

These combinations will make a Hero:

* AABB
* AaBB
* AABb
* AaBb

These combinations will make a non-Hero:

* AAbb
* Aabb
* aaBB
* aaBb
* aabb

Two Hero parents can even have non-Hero children. These non-Heroes are produced by two Hero parents who have at least one recessive allele of the same gene.

AaBB x AaBB could produce:

* AABB (1/4 chance) = Hero
* AaBB (1/2 chance) = Hero
* aaBB ( 1/4 chance) = non-Hero

AABb x AABb could produce:

* AABB (1/4) = Hero
* AABb (1/2) = Hero
* AAbb (1/4) = non-Hero

However, the cross AABb x AaBB would produce all Hero offspring, since only one recessive allele of each gene could be inherited by any offspring:

* AABB (1/4) = Hero
* AABb (1/4) = Hero
* AaBB (1/4) = Hero
* AaBb (1/4) = Hero

The cross likely to produce the most non-Heroes from two Hero parents is, obviously, AaBb x AaBb, in which the offspring have a seven in sixteen chance of being a non-Hero.

Heroes born from two non-Heroes are produced if one parent has two "a" alleles and at least one "B" allele, while the other parent has two "b" alleles and at least one "A" allele. Because of this, they could produce Hero offspring.

AAbb x aaBB, for example, would produce all Hero offspring of the type AaBb.

Aabb x aaBb would produce Hero offspring in the proportion of one in four:

* AaBb = Hero
* Aabb = non-Hero
* aaBb = non-Hero
* aabb = non-Hero

Aabb x aaBB or AAbb x aabB would have a one in two chance of having Hero offspring.

[Hypochondriac]

I doubt Mendelian genetics applies. Otherwise there should be a ton more heros then we've seen

[jds1982]

We already have a discussion on the genetics of heroes. Perhaps the mods should combine these two threads.