A recent study found that at least 180 different genes seem to be correlated with height in humans, which is partly why height seems to be a continuous trait. If we imagine a much simpler scenario in which only 10 genes control height, and each of these genes displays simple Mendelian inheritance (i.e., there are only two alleles, tall and short, and tall is dominant to short) and shows equal contribution to height, how many different possible genetic height phenotypes would there be in humans?

Question

2112030

Answer 1

In this scenario, with 10 genes controlling height and each gene having two alleles (tall and short) contributing equally to height, there would be \(2^{10} = 1024\) possible genetic height phenotypes in humans.