Asked by: Pete Garibaldi, Kettering
A chin dimple, or cleft chin, can be hereditary, and passed down in what is known as a dominant trait. Our parents each give us one version of the gene involved in this trait. The two versions are not equal: ‘dominant’ means that the inheritance of just one copy of the cleft version will give you a chin cleft of some description.
It is less likely, but not impossible, to inherit no cleft versions of the gene and still have a cleft chin. What you pass on to each of your children will be another shuffle of the versions, so that, in turn, they may or may not show the cleft.
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