Hi all x I'm making a game, where evolution, breeding, and genetic inheritance, are core concepts. To that end ive been doing lots of research. I have no intention of simulating genetics down to every tiny detail, i doubt that's even possible, and is certainly beyond my scope. mostly i'm aiming to create a pseudo realistic feeling, "gamey" simulation of genetics and inheritance.
I would appreciate any general advice on this topic. For now i'm trying to implement a fairly simplistic model of alleles, one from each parent, for various traits. Blood type is the first one i'm doing since the rules for that seem very clear-cut. A and B are dominant, i is recessiv. Six possible combinations, four possible blood groups. That's simple enough
next up is eye colour, and this is where things get a bit more tricky. i've found various sources on the subject, but there doesn't seem to be an exactly clear cut answer on whichparts of the chromosome affeect eye colour, or how it's inherited. i do need some advice here. What i've gleaned that i'm reasonably sure of is that brown eyes are dominant somehow, and blue are recessive. at least relative to each other. I'd like to know how other eye colours fit into the sequence, is there a chain of dominance from most to least?
The plan hopefully, is to exstrapolate that basic method to a vast variety of other traits (ear size/shape, tail shape, limb length, height, fat susceptbility, ease of muscle gain, nose shape, etc, etc. can i do that? am i likely to run into issues where it's not viable?
Now that aside, i also have a specific question. My primitive understanding of alleles, is that one is inherited from each parent. So in the case of blood type, in order to have Type O blood an organism would need to inherit an i allele from each parent.
Following on from that, a type O blooded organism only has ii alleles for blood, so does that mean that it can only ever pass on an i allele as a result? And extrapolating from that, does this mean that two type O parents will always produce a type O child, since neither can contribute anything but i?
is there some kind of inheritance of alleles in addition to the one from each parent which determines the phenotype? Would it be theoretically possible to breed out the A and B alleles from a family (or a whole species) and have them be lost forever, resulting in everything being type O?
The plan hopefully, is to exstrapolate this basic method to a vast variety of other traits (ear size/shape, tail shape, limb length, height, fat susceptbility, ease of muscle gain, nose shape, etc, etc. can i do that? am i likely to run into issues where it's not viable?
mutation is oin the design too, once i get this initial stage working right. although i'm not quite sure how to approach that. the current idea i have is just giving a small chance for an inherited allele to be dropped, and replaced with a randomised one.