Sickle Cell Anemia Case Study

Traits get passed down from one generation to the next through Meiosis (cell division), where each parent gives you one Gene for each trait.

Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disorder that mostly affects people of African ancestry, but also occurs in other ethnic groups, including people who are of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent. More than 70,000 Americans have sickle cell anemia. And about 2 million Americans - and one in 12 African Americans - have sickle cell trait (this means they carry one gene for the disease, but do not have the disease itself).

Sickle cell disease is a disease that is most prevalent in people of African descent along with people of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern origin. This disease is known to affect about 70, 000 Americans and about 2 million people carry the trait (meaning that, they carry a single gene mutation).

Do genes A and C follow Mendel’s principles of inheritance? Why or why not? Explain fully.

Sickle cell anemia affects a wide range of demographics, from young to old. However, there are specific groups of people who are likely more prone to this disease than any other group. This disease affects millions of people worldwide regardless of age, but it is particularly common amongst those who derive from specific regions of the world. Sickle cell anemia is most common in those whose ancestors are derived from the sub-Saharan region of Africa. Furthermore, other regions that are known to have a high number of people containing sickle cell anemia are from Mediterranean countries, the Arabian Peninsula, and Spanish-speaking regions as well ("Who Is at Risk for Sickle Cell Anemia?"). This disease originated from the sub-Saharan region of Africa, and later migrated to other areas through the spreading of other diseases such as malaria. This is due to the fact that sickle cell disease occurs habitually in areas that are prone to diseases such as malaria. Although this disease can affect anyone, the highest cases of sickle cell anemia were found in African-Americans than in any other race. In the United States, sickle cell disease affects about 70,000 to 100,000 Americans ("Who Is at Risk for Sickle Cell Anemia?"). The statistics show that 1 out of every 500 births is affected by sickle cell disease for African-Americans. For the Hispanics, 1 out of every 36,000 births is prone to sickle cell disease ("Who Is at Risk for Sickle Cell Anemia?"). The age ranges for which a

The gene is most common in countries such as Africam India, Mediterranean countries, Sauda Arabia, the Caribbean islands, South and Central America, and also in the United States. According to American Society of Hematology, the United States, sickle cell is mostly in the black community.

Sickle cell anemia is more common in sub-Saharan regions of Africa, where malaria is prevalent, than it is in regions where malaria is not common. This is because being heterozygous for sickle cell anemia in malaria-prone regions carries a fitness.

.What does the map of the prevalence of hemoglobin disorders worldwide indicate about the disease?

It was reported that Sammy is the only person in the family to have been diagnosed with SCD. While it is not stated here, even though no other family member has presented with SCD, it can be assumed that both of Sammy’s parents have the sickle cell gene. As stated before, two parents with the sickle cell gene have a 25% chance of having a child with SCD. Sammy’s presentation is that of a six-year-old boy weighing only 64 pounds, despite the fact that he is 14-years-old. His size is directly related to his frequent episodes of sickle cell crisis. During a sickle cell crisis, the body’s ability to provide the tissue with proper oxygen and nutrients is impaired.

Thousands of years ago, a genetic mutation occurred in people from the Mediterranean basin, India, Africa, and the Middle East. As the Malaria Epidemic attacked people of these countries, carriers of the defective hemoglobin gene survived. Carrying one defective gene means that a person has a sickle cell trait. Two parents with the trait will produce a child with sickle cell anemia. People of these countries migrated and spread to other areas. In the Western Hemisphere, where malaria is not much of a problem, having the abnormal hemoglobin gene has lost its advantage. Any child born from parents that each has the trait will be born with the disease.

Purpose: The purpose of the genetic inheritance experiment is to show the understanding of how the reception of genetic qualities by transmission from parent to offspring work. Procedures: For the first exercise, I recorded the F2 seeding color. I recorded the frequency of green: white plants that will result in the F2 progeny.

Sickle cell disease is an autosomal recessive condition. A person must inherit sickle cell genes from both the parents to have the disease. Sometimes, a person will receive sickle cell gene from one parent and a regular gene from the other, which are the carrier for sickle cell. These carriers has no health problems unless it is exposed to extreme conditions. It also decreases the severity of malaria. When both parents are genetic carriers of the disease, each child has a chance of:

The environment plays a significant role in the inheritance and expression of sickle cell anemia. Things like, cold/windy weather, decreased air quality, dehydration, anything that causes an increased physiological need for oxygen ie - increasing HR/BP and vasoconstriction or altering erythrocyte oxygen binding can potentially cause an SCA attack/incident (Tewari 2015). The majority of environmental factors affecting the severity of sickle cell anemia are related to fetal hemoglobin (HbF) concentrations (the most studied genetic modulator of SCA) and α thalassemia. High concentrations of HbF (in those affect by SCA, HbF is typically about 20%) prevents clinically significant sickle hemoglobin (HbS) polymerization (formation of sickled erythrocytes).

According to A. Alison, there’s a possibility that people with the sickle cell trait have an advantage over those without the trait. In 1946, Beet ran an experiment involving 102 sickle cell infected patients from Rhodesia and only 9.8% of them had signs of malaria, where 491 patients without the sickle cell trait were also tested and 15.3% of them had malaria parasites. In another study the same experiment was conducted, but on African children. 27% of the children with the trait showed signs of the parasite, where 46% of the children without contained the parasite. The results show a large difference

The two alleles, one contributed by the male and the one by the female gamete remain distinct; alleles do not blend with one another or become altered in any other way