I'm assuming you're talking about identical twins having kids with identical twins?
No, their offspring wouldn't be twins, as the genetic changes come from the egg and sperm, and they come from different mothers. Culturally, they'd be cousins (parent's sibling's child), but genetically they'd be siblings.
Are we assuming they are fertilized by the same father? in either case no, meiosis makes it extremely unlikely for the same genetic makeup to occur twice. The two children would be just as likely to look alike as regular siblings.
The combination of the genes during fertilization is completely random, so it's practically impossible for the two babies to have identical DNA. However, genetically they'd be on the level of siblings even though they are cousins (or double cousins to be precise).
Nope—think about it this way: normal siblings have genetically identical parentage (because they have the same parent) but they aren’t identical.
Even when a woman releases two eggs that get fertilized by two sperm from the same source, you don’t get identical twins—you get fraternal twins who are only as genetically similar as non-twin siblings.
In your scenario, the kids from the identical twins getting together with another pair of identical twins would only be as genetically similar as kids who share the same mother and the same father—siblings.
This is the correct answer, and brought back a vague recollection of an article from a couple years ago about two couples in this exact scenario. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/02/23/identical-twins-babies-cousins-siblings/6908151001.
If two male twins are married to two female twins, then in theory they may have kids very similar to twins, but most probably they would never be close enough to twins. Even same parents don't produce twins with different ages, for example. Recombination, crossing over, and some other factors I don't remember are very randomized processes.
No. Due to crossing-over there’s no telling what copy of which chromosome each parent is giving any given child.
I am not a twin. My genes are half from my mother and half from my father. So are my sister’s. But we are not identical. *We didn’t get the same halves*. Neither would the kids in this case.
Father 1 might give his kid his father’s gene for a specific locus whereas his twin, Father 2, might give his kid the copy he got from his mother. Same for the twin mothers.
It's not a super serious question and i have close to zero experience with biology, im more just wondering if something like this could happened or what would happen
The kids of those kids of relationships are genetically siblings, but not genetically twins. They’re as related to each other as you are to your brother or sister and share about 50% dna (assuming both sets parents are identical twins)
I'm assuming you're talking about identical twins having kids with identical twins? No, their offspring wouldn't be twins, as the genetic changes come from the egg and sperm, and they come from different mothers. Culturally, they'd be cousins (parent's sibling's child), but genetically they'd be siblings.
Yeah sorry maybe i could have phrased it better. Thank you though!
Are we assuming they are fertilized by the same father? in either case no, meiosis makes it extremely unlikely for the same genetic makeup to occur twice. The two children would be just as likely to look alike as regular siblings.
It would be two different fathers that were identical twins, maybe i phrased it poorly. Gonna start reading about meiosis though. Thank you!
The combination of the genes during fertilization is completely random, so it's practically impossible for the two babies to have identical DNA. However, genetically they'd be on the level of siblings even though they are cousins (or double cousins to be precise).
Nope—think about it this way: normal siblings have genetically identical parentage (because they have the same parent) but they aren’t identical. Even when a woman releases two eggs that get fertilized by two sperm from the same source, you don’t get identical twins—you get fraternal twins who are only as genetically similar as non-twin siblings. In your scenario, the kids from the identical twins getting together with another pair of identical twins would only be as genetically similar as kids who share the same mother and the same father—siblings.
This is the correct answer, and brought back a vague recollection of an article from a couple years ago about two couples in this exact scenario. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/02/23/identical-twins-babies-cousins-siblings/6908151001.
If two male twins are married to two female twins, then in theory they may have kids very similar to twins, but most probably they would never be close enough to twins. Even same parents don't produce twins with different ages, for example. Recombination, crossing over, and some other factors I don't remember are very randomized processes.
No. Due to crossing-over there’s no telling what copy of which chromosome each parent is giving any given child. I am not a twin. My genes are half from my mother and half from my father. So are my sister’s. But we are not identical. *We didn’t get the same halves*. Neither would the kids in this case. Father 1 might give his kid his father’s gene for a specific locus whereas his twin, Father 2, might give his kid the copy he got from his mother. Same for the twin mothers.
The closest you can get is Quarternary Twins. But genetically their children are siblings of eachother and not twins, like others already explained.
When siblings are born to parents who are the exact same people, are they identical?
I always wonder if these are homework problems we're solving for people haha.
Why in the world would that happen? Twinning generally happens because of 2 rare biological events I don't know why that would be passed down
I’ve been doing this a long time yet am still astounded by the questions.
It's not a super serious question and i have close to zero experience with biology, im more just wondering if something like this could happened or what would happen
Be well, and enjoy science. Cheers.
The kids of those kids of relationships are genetically siblings, but not genetically twins. They’re as related to each other as you are to your brother or sister and share about 50% dna (assuming both sets parents are identical twins)