Should we get a in depth explanation on how the x gene works ?

[marhawkman]

The only thing I think needs to be more explained and consisent is children inhereting their parent's powers... Not that I think they all should instead of having different powers, but for the ones that do: Are they as strong as their parents? If they're less powerful, why, even though they have the exact same powerset and it's obviously not random? If they're more powerful, then why, for the same reason?

This is something that kinda bothers me about the Grey-Summers kids. If Jean is omega, then Rachel should be too. Cable has the virus excuse, and Nate Grey got depowered. But for her there's no reason. And why is that there was this thing about Jean and Scott's kids in particular being super powerful, as in supposedly more powerful than Jean, even though they're only inhereting her powers but not Scott's?

I have my own psuedo-sciencey headcanon that is useful to me for writing fanfic when children and inheritance is involved.

But generally speaking it doesn't come into play super often in the comics.

However, it DOES irk me when people say things like "I have the BRCA gene" for instance though because NO.

Literally EVERYONE has not one but two copies of both the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene. What you really mean to say is that you carry a mutation on one copy of either BRCA1 or BRCA2 which greatly increases your risk for breast and ovarian cancer should one of your cells in those tissues acquire a de novo mutation on the other non-mutated copy of that particular BRCA gene. It's the double hit theory.

So I don't think of mutants as having an extra gene and definitely not a whole extra chromosome called X. That makes no sense since they can be born to humans and have children with humans.

In my mind for this universe, all humans carry this gene that is either constitutively silent (i.e. inactive) in normal humans or normally functions to inactivate numerous downstream gene expressions. This "X" gene is maybe some ancient holdover that is important in many many downstream gene expressions that effect form and function, the kind normally only active during certain development periods or observed in instances of punctuated evolution. And mutants are literally just humans with at least one mutated copy of gene X - Possibly two if they got one from each mutant parent. And it would have to be an autosomal dominant type of inheritance, which allows for de novo mutants to arise randomly from normal human parents and for mutant status to function independent of sex chromosomes - i.e. I would NOT put the X gene on the X chromosome.

I also headcanon that different mutations to the X gene are part of what causes certain general families of mutation to exist (energy manipulation, telepathy, etc) and the degree of functionality of the mutated gene is related to the type of mutation. A stop gain or frameshift, depending on location, can take out different aspects of gene function and have a stronger phenotype versus perhaps a more subtle point mutation phenotype. Plus all the combinations that can happen.

So yeah, maybe outside the scope of most writers. But I still find it very intriguing.

Well, IRL there are a lot of things where the expression of a gene gets heavily modified by another gene. For example: solid black cats... a lot of them actually have the gene for stripes. But you can't see it because the two parts of their fur are too close to the same color.

[I'm a Fish]

I always thought it would be fun if the X-Gene was carried on the X-chromosome.

But other than that, any explanation is gonna sound like B.S. no matter how much pseudo-science you put into it. I love biology and using it to explore all of natures possibilities, but none of these characters were really created to have their powers make sense.

Some work better than others, but yeah it's better just to not...

[CosmiComic]

I guess the main thing is to he internally consistent and not break your own rules all the time

[AppleJ]

Well, IRL there are a lot of things where the expression of a gene gets heavily modified by another gene. For example: solid black cats... a lot of them actually have the gene for stripes. But you can't see it because the two parts of their fur are too close to the same color.

Yes I know. That is kind of the point.

[AppleJ]

I always thought it would be fun if the X-Gene was carried on the X-chromosome.

But other than that, any explanation is gonna sound like B.S. no matter how much pseudo-science you put into it. I love biology and using it to explore all of natures possibilities, but none of these characters were really created to have their powers make sense.

Some work better than others, but yeah it's better just to not...

The trouble with the X gene being on the X chromosome is that most biologically male mutants could only inherit their powers from a single maternal mutant parent, not from both parents, if it's an X-linked dominant condition. And we already know that doesn't track in universe. Likewise a male could only be a carrier of their biological mother's mutant X gene if it's a recessive X-linked condition and de novo mutants wouldn't be as common for biological females since two mutant copies of the X gene would be needed to see a phenotype for a recessive condition.