Concept explainers
A hereditary disease is inherited as an autosomalrecessive trait. The wild
a. Identify the genotype of each family member, using the sizes of mRNAs to indicate each allele. (For example, a person who is homozygous wild type is indicated as
b. Based on your analysis, what is the most likely molecular abnormality causing the disease allele?
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Genetic Analysis: An Integrated Approach (3rd Edition)
- You learned in Problem 21 in Chapter 7 that theneurodegenerative disease ALS can be caused by expansion of a hexanucleotide repeat region (5′-GGGGCC-3′)outside of the open reading frame (but within the firstintron) of the gene called C9ORF72. While a normalC9ORF72 allele has 2–23 copies of the hexanucleotiderepeat unit, dominant disease-causing alleles have hundreds or even thousands of copies. Researchers observed that the first intron of theC9ORF72 disease allele is transcribed not only fromthe normal template strand of DNA, but also from thenontemplate strand. Even more unusual, both types ofrepeat-region transcripts are translated in all six readingframes in an AUG-independent manner—a processcalled repeat-associated non-ATG translation, or RANtranslation. These discoveries led to the hypothesisthat the proteins made from the repeats mightcontribute to ALS.a. What polypeptides are made from the repeat-regiontranscripts?b. According to the RAN translation hypothesis, whyare…arrow_forwardIn McCune-Albright syndrome, fibrous connective tissue replaces bone, tan patches (café-au-lait spots) dot the skin, and hormone abnormalities cause early puberty and malfunction of the thyroid, pituitary, and adrenal glands. The phenotype is highly variable, and all patients are somatic mosaics for the mutation, which is in the gene GNAS1. Why is the condition seen only in mosaics?arrow_forwardHuntington disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by gradual, irreversible impairment of psychological, motor, and cognitive functions. Symptoms typically appear in middle age, but onset can occur at almost any age, and the course of the disease can range from 15 to 20 years. The molecular basis of HD is becoming better understood, and the genetic mutation has been traced to a gene that encodes a large protein of unknown function. In individuals who will not develop HD, a region of the gene that encodes the N-terminus of this protein has a sequence of CAG codons (for glutamine) repeated 6 to 39 times in succession. In individuals with adult-onset HD, this codon (3 nucleotides) is typically repeated 40 to 55 times In those with childhood-onset HD, it is repeated more than 70 times. *codon: refers to the 3 nucleotides that code for amino acid. A small portion of the coding sequence of the HD gene is given below. The nucleotide sequence of the DNA is…arrow_forward
- Familial retinoblastoma, a rare autosomal dominant defect, arose in a large family that had no prior history of the disease. Consider the following pedigree (the darkly colored symbols represent affected individuals): a. Circle the individual(s) in which the mutation most likely occurred. b. Is the person who is the source of the mutation affected by retinoblastoma? Justify your answer. c. Assuming that the mutant allele is fully penetrant, what is the chance that an affected individual will have an affected child?arrow_forwardWhat percentage of the DNA in the genome actually corresponds to genes? How much is actually protein-coding exons? What makes up the rest?arrow_forwardIdentical (monozygotic) twins have identical genomes. In one pair of identical twins, they inherit a dominant, disease-causing allele from one of their biological parents. However, one twin has symptoms of the genetic disease while the other does not. This is likely an example of… 1.) RNA interference 2.) pleiotropy 3.) DNA methylation 4.) alternative splicing 5.) incomplete penetrancearrow_forward
- You have the following DNA coding sequence of a wild-type allele: 5’-ATG TTC CAG CTA GAT GAT ATG CTG GTA ATT GGG GAA CGC GCG CGG TAA-3’ For each of the following mutations: A. State whether the mutation is missense, nonsense, frameshift, or silent. B. Write the codon change that occurs for the missense, nonsense, and silent mutations (ex. GAA -- GAT). C. For frameshift mutations, write out the entire mutant sequence with each codon clearly indicated (if the frameshift creates a new stop codon, end the sequence at the new stop). Using the wild type DNA sequence above as a guide : Write the amino acid sequence of the mutants. Mutant 1: transition at nucleotide 23 Mutant 2: T --> G transversion at nucleotide 29 Mutant 3: an insertion of “A” after nucleotide 14 Mutant 4: transition at nucleotide 7 Mutant 5: An insertion of GG after nucleotide 40 Mutant 6: transition at nucleotide 15 Mutant 7: a deletion of nucleotide 25arrow_forwardThe b1 allele encodes a transcription factor that stimulates production of anthocyanin, a purple pigment in plants. What would be the effect of deleting the seven tandem repeats that are located 100,000 bp upstream of the b1 locus in corn?arrow_forward. The physicist Stephen Hawking, famous for his theories about black holes, has lived past the age of 70 withamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a paralyzing neurodegenerative disease that is usually fatal at a muchyounger age. Recently, geneticists discovered that amajor cause of ALS is the unusual expansion of ahexanucleotide repeat (5′-GGGGCC-3′) that lieswithin a gene called C9ORF72, at a location outside ofthe gene’s open reading frame (ORF). A single expanded allele is sufficient to cause ALS, but the reasonthe disease allele is dominant remains unclear. Someexperimental results support the theory that the allelemakes a toxic RNA containing the expanded repeat. Ifthis theory is correct, in what ways is the mutant ALScausing allele similar to the mutant allele that causesHuntington disease? In what ways is it similar to themutant allele that causes fragile X syndrome?arrow_forward
- The human genome contains thousands of sequences known as small open reading frames, some of which encode proteins of about 30 amino acids. What is the minimum number of nucleotides required to encode such a protein?arrow_forwardOne mutation is a deletion of six nucleotides in the second exon of the gene and the other mutation is an insertion of two nucleotides in the third intron of the gene. Which is more likely to have a significant effect on the expression of a functional polypeptide from this gene?arrow_forwardIn the human gene for the beta chain of haemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein in the red blood cells), the first 30 nucleotides in the amino-acid-coding region is represented by the sequence: 3'-TACCACGTGGACTGAGGACTCCTCTTCAGA-5'. What is the sequence of the partner strand?arrow_forward
- Human Heredity: Principles and Issues (MindTap Co...BiologyISBN:9781305251052Author:Michael CummingsPublisher:Cengage Learning