Chapter 15, Problem 3Q

Summary Introduction

To review:

The risks involved for this couple’s children when person 1 was to have a child with person 2 when both persons are suffering from mild anemia.

Given:

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences of the coding strand of two persons for the same region of the β-globulin gene with mild anemia is given as below:

Person 1: Sequence 1: CCT TGG ACC CAG AGG TTC; sequence 2: CCT TGG ACC TAG AGG TTC

Person 2: Sequence 1: CCT TGG ACC CAG AGG TTC; sequence 2: CCT GGA CCC AGA GGT TCT

Introduction:

The relatives of these two persons were suffering from an autosomal recessive disorder called thalassemia, which is a condition characterized by the abnormal production of hemoglobin. Persons suffering from thalassemia do not produce sufficient amount of alpha- and beta-globin.