A question on genes.

[WebViro]

I have never been sure of this, but is it possible that certain genes can be bred out of a person, such as non-European elements? I was always under the assumption that it was possible, but from certain things I have read, I have reconsidered. If you could explain or point me to some articles I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

[Agrippa]

Well, you cannot breed with "normal-natural" methods all genes out of a mixed person, but you can target "negative traits". F.e. you could breed out of a mulattoe population an almost "pure looking", phenotypically Europid and Negrid population out in some generations, but that accounts only for the genes which express themselves, "which you can see". The genes you can't breed out are of no real importance on the one hand, but we might just know the importance so far. And even the "junk genes" (without function) show kinship to some degree, though, as the name suggests, for the life in a community its not important which genes without function somebody has, he is just "not pure" and being "pure" is rather a construct anyway. Its about being relatively pure always, absolut is a construct and its about the features first, at least to me.

In the future we might be able to breed pure individuals out of every mix, but thats rather genetic engineering and the method could be used for more important features than "jung genes".

[WebViro]

Yes, I understand purity is nothing more than a relative term. I was more interested in such things as genetic disorders and the possibility of eliminating elements from a gene pool which would give a person of a "mixed" background a genetic identity.