The first genetic test developed for this disease took advantage of a large family of over 2,000 individuals who lived along Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. These family members, some with and some without Huntington’s disease, could all trace their ancestry to a single female who settled in the region a number of generations ago. Genomic DNA from family members with and without Huntington’s disease was cut with a set of enzymes that make reproducible cuts at known DNA sequences. These DNA fragments were run on a DNA gel to see which fragments correlated with the presence of Huntington’s disease. a) How might the large number (over 2,000) of family members who have a common ancestor who suffered from Huntington’s disease make it easy to narrow down the gene location of the Huntington’s locus (compared to doing the same experiment with a small family descended from a Huntington’s sufferer)?
1. The first genetic test developed for this disease took advantage of a large family of over 2,000 individuals who lived along Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. These family members, some with and some without Huntington’s disease, could all trace their ancestry to a single female who settled in the region a number of generations ago.
Genomic DNA from family members with and without Huntington’s disease was cut with a set of enzymes that make reproducible cuts at known DNA sequences. These DNA fragments were run on a DNA gel to see which fragments correlated with the presence of Huntington’s disease.
a) How might the large number (over 2,000) of family members who have a common ancestor who suffered from Huntington’s disease make it easy to narrow down the gene location of the Huntington’s locus (compared to doing the same experiment with a small family descended from a Huntington’s sufferer)?
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