Monday, March 14, 2011

In sickness and in Health



http://www.sciencecases.org/sickness_and_health/sickness_and_health.asp

    1.  Do autosomal dominant disorders skip generations?
      -Yes it is possible to skip generations but not likely.


    2.  Could Greg or his mother be carriers of the gene that causes myotonic dystrophy?
        -No 

   3.  Is there a possibility that Greg’s aunt or uncle is homozygous for the myotonic    dystrophy (MD) gene?
        -Yes
  
  4.  Symptoms of myotonic dystrophy sometimes don’t show up until after age fifty. What is the possibility that Greg’s cousin has inherited the MD gene?
       -Pretty good

  5.  What is the possibility that Greg and Olga’s children could inherit the MD gene?   --           Absolutely not

Recessive





  1. What are the hallmarks of an autosomal recessive trait?
     -Skips generations
  
   2.  What does consanguineous mean? Why is this concept especially important when discussing recessive genetic disorders?
      -Consanguineous is being of the same family or blood connection.  This is important because it can explain who and where it came from and stop the possible inheritance in further generations.

    3. What is it about the inheritance pattern of factor VIII deficiency seen in Greg and Olga’s pedigree that point toward it not being an autosomal recessive trait?
       -In Greg and Olga's pedigree it is proven that it cannot be an autosomal recessive trait because two generations back to back are both carriers of the disease.


SexLinked


                                                                                                                                                                                                                            • W1.What are the characteristics of X-linked recessive inheritance?
-Only one set for males and two for females.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            •  


        • 2.  Why does a son never inherit his father’s defective X chromosome?

-Because he takes it from his mother.


  • 3.What is required for a woman to display a sex-linked recessive trait?
 -For both of her parents to have it.


Friday, March 4, 2011

Stem Cells

The research of stem cells is a very broad subject.  There are ideas on curing diseases, wound healing, traumatic issues, blindness, deafness, even more feature focused studies like solving baldness!  However, at the time being its only under serious study and there really isn't anything that is tested enough to prove itself a definite answer.  The main thing I worry about is finding a cure to a disease or defect in the human society and it turning out to be wrong and knocking out portions of the human race.  Like in "I Am Legend" there is a cure for cancer that is found, hundreds of thousands of people decide to  be "cured" but after a given amount of time their bodies reject it and turn they all turn into zombies!!  Anyway it may not be the most accurate movie but its still a great film in my opinion, it does definitely makes you think about the "what if" side of things though.  I for one would not volunteer to take a cure for anything,  I'll watch and find out.  However, this doesn't mean I'm against stem cell research i think it's amazing how far humans have come technology wise.  For us now to have the possibility of recorrecting defects in genes, and problems with our bodies is mind boggling.  

Mitosis

Mitosis is the process of a cell creating an exact copy of itself.  In order do so the cell must go through five phases:  Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase.  During Interphase the cell begins its seperation by two chromosomes begining to pull away from each other, at this point the nucleus is still visible.  In Prophase the chromosomes have pulled even farther away from each other, now the nucleus is beginning to "fade" because the membrane is beginning to degrade.  By Metaphase the  chromosomes have aligned and the nucleus is no longer visible.  In Anaphase the kinetochore microtubules have shortened.  Finally in Telophase the membrane of the cell has begun to separate into two cells, an exact copy of the first.  In our Onion Root Cell Lab we were able to decide which cells were in each phase.  Parts of it we had issues agreeing on one phase but all in all I thoroughly enjoyed myself!