avatar the last airbender - What determines a bender's element?

At first glance, it seems that bending is genetic/racial. In the original series, each nation has its own element and there is no crossover (the Avatar being the obvious exception). The upcoming series mixes things up by introducing two brothers, Mako and Bolin. Mako is a firebender and Bolin is an earthbender. This lends itself to genetics pretty easily as one could assume they came from mixed parents.

Then I remembered that humans did not always posses the ability to bend. Each nation was originally taught their respective art by an external force.

Earthbenders were taught by the badgermoles.

Firebenders were taught by the dragons.

Airbenders were taught by the skybison.

Waterbenders learned by watching the moon push/pull the tides.

We know that at least one of these methods still works at the time of the original series as Toph learned eathbending directly from the badgermoles. So then one could assume that bending in itself is not so much genetic as is the aptitude for bending.

So is there anything other than tradition that determines a bender's element? Could someone other than the Avatar learn to bend multiple elements if they had the means to seek out these animals and the willpower?

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