Emergenesis

Emergenesis

Emergenesis

The result of a specific combination of several interacting genes


In psychology, a trait (or phenotype) is called emergenic if it is the result of a specific combination of several interacting genes (rather than of a simple sum of several independent genes). Emergenic traits will not run in families, but identical twins will share them. Traits such as "leadership", "genius" or certain mental illnesses may be emergenic. Although one may expect epigenetics to play a significant role in the phenotypic manifestation of twins reared apart, the concordance displayed between them can be attributed to emergenesis.[1]


References

  1. Lykken, DT; McGue, M; Tellegen, A; Bouchard TJ, Jr (December 1992). "Emergenesis. Genetic traits that may not run in families". The American Psychologist. 47 (12): 1565–77. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.47.12.1565. PMID 1476327.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Emergenesis, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.