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Genetic Disorders in Twins Essay

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Twin studies have been used to distinguish between genetic and environmental factors for many disorders in the general population including ectodermal dysplasia, Ellis-van Creveld, and anencephaly. This review focuses on genetic disorders affecting monozygotic, dizygotic, and conjoined twins to gain a better understanding of them. Many studies focus on twins because they have a nearly identical genome, which eliminates environmental factors. In case studies, the concordance rates in monozygotic twins have supported that certain disorders were caused by genetics and not the environment. The discordant values in twins will also be evaluated briefly. Twinning studies have also shown linkages between specific disorders and the genes …show more content…

Researchers have found that with certain genetic disorders that were known beforehand could be prevented in some cases. Knowing the specific disorder allows scientists to take immediate action in preventing future cases of individuals having the same disorder.
Currently, research as attempted to find the possible cause of twinning, which may allow individuals the ability to have twins at will. If the cause of twinning was discovered than women may have the ability to decide if they want to have twins One of the earliest accounts of conjoined twins include the Thai brothers, Chang and Eng Bunker. These two individuals are famous for traveling with the P.T. Barnum circus and were known by many as the Siamese twins. From these two individuals came the coining of the term Siamese. In this present paper, various genetic disorders in monozygotic, dizygotic, and conjoined twins will be carefully evaluated and reviewed in order to gain a better insight on the complexity of twinning. In order to clearly understand the formation of twins, the foundational knowledge of twinning must be analyzed. Beginning with the three common types of twins, including monozygotic (identical), dizygotic (fraternal), and conjoined (Siamese). Monozygotic twins occur from the division of one fertilized zygote (source*). Dizygotic twins occur from the fertilization of two different zygotes by two separate sperm (source*). Conjoined twins occur from the incomplete

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