Is there a Sicilian DNA marker or trigger?

[darkerhorse]

This isn't exactly a new topic.

My two brothers and I are half-Sicilian by paper trail (no DNA testing), having a father who was 100% Sicilian and a mother who was 0% Sicilian. She had no Italian ancestry whatsoever.

We three brothers look very different from each other and have very different personalities, behavioral traits, etc. I look the most Sicilian and strongly identified with that side of the family much more than my brothers who didn't have strong identification one way or another. I always favored that side, preferred their culture, food, look, association, etc. In appearance, one brother is like my mother and the other more of a combination of our parents. The former identified a bit more with our mother (likely due to physical resemblance).

If DNA is inherited equally from each parent by all children, then my affinity with Italian/ Sicilian ancestry must be due not to having inherited more DNA from my father but to having inherited some visible features (genes for hair and eye color, complexion, blood type, etc.) and also due to nurture and choice perhaps resulting from physical resemblance. DNA quality, not quantity.

Or is there a Sicilian DNA marker or trigger which I could have inherited from my father that my brothers didn't, even though we all inherited 50% from him? I'm assuming the 50% isn't the same DNA content for all of us.

Comments?

[MarcuccioV]

This isn't exactly a new topic.

My two brothers and I are half-Sicilian by paper trail (no DNA testing), having a father who was 100% Sicilian and a mother who was 0% Sicilian. She had no Italian ancestry whatsoever.

We three brothers look very different from each other and have very different personalities, behavioral traits, etc. I look the most Sicilian and strongly identified with that side of the family much more than my brothers who didn't have strong identification one way or another. I always favored that side, preferred their culture, food, look, association, etc. In appearance, one brother is like my mother and the other more of a combination of our parents. The former identified a bit more with our mother (likely due to physical resemblance).

If DNA is inherited equally from each parent by all children, then my affinity with Italian/ Sicilian ancestry must be due not to having inherited more DNA from my father but to having inherited some visible features (genes for hair and eye color, complexion, blood type, etc.) and also due to nurture and choice perhaps resulting from physical resemblance. DNA quality, not quantity.

Or is there a Sicilian DNA marker or trigger which I could have inherited from my father that my brothers didn't, even though we all inherited 50% from him? I'm assuming the 50% isn't the same DNA content for all of us.

Comments?

The simple (it's not so simple, after all) answer is, if you were to compare which areas of which chromosomes you 3 inherited, you'd find quite a variance -- yes, 50%, but not on the same chromosomes (or segments of chromosomes). Therefore, your dad's inheritance from his family could be very different from one chromosome to another. Perhaps one chromosome came mostly from a particular ancestor, and you, in turn, got more inheritance of that chromosome than say your brothers did. Since your inherited DNA is of your ancestors alone, there is no way to isolate any particular marker. The only comparison you could make would be DNA testing (all 3 of you) and comparing chromosome paint kits (23&me, MyHeritage, etc) to see which of you matches on which chromosomes (triangulation). If there are areas on your paternal sides chromosomes that don't match your brothers, then that might move you in the right direction, but it's not definitive by any means. I tend to favor my Italian side, too, but unfortunately I have no siblings for comparison so I can't give a first-hand account...

[darkerhorse]

It's rather common to hear that a particular child takes after a given parent.

Would your answer as to why follow the same logic?