Chromosomal Abnormalities Flashcards
Describe the events in meiosis that produce genetic variability among offspring
- Meiotic recombination (crossing over) in Prophase I
- Independent assortment
Differentiate between the reproductive consequences of nondisjunction events in meiosis I versus meiosis II
Meiosis I - all the gametes will be abnormal. Half of the gametes will have two homologous chromosomes of a single while half the gametes will lack those chromosomes completely.
Meiosis II - half the gametes will be normal and half will be abnormal. Of the abnormal gametes, half will an extra sister chromatid and half will lack that chromosome altogether.
Describe the relationship between meiotic recombination (crossovers) and chromosome nondisjunction
Crossing over that occurs too far from the centromere causes the spindle attachments and segregation during meiosis I to be less effective.
Crossing over too close to the centromere, or having too many chiasmata results in the homologs becoming entangled. Reduced or absent recombination increases the risk of nondisjunction.
Down Syndrome
Trisomy 21
- Hypotonia as a newborn
- Short stature
- Brachycephaly (a wide head)
- Flat occiput (flat back of the head)
- Short nect with loose skin on the nape
- Flat nasal bridge
- Low set, folded ears
- Brushfield spots around the iris (white or gray/brown spots due to aggregation of connective tissue)
- Epicanthal folds and upslanting palpebral fissures (the opening for the eye between the upper and lower eyelids)
- Furrowed, protruding tongue
- Short, broad hands often with a transverse palmar crease
- Incurved fifth digits (aka clinodactyly)
- Wide gap between the first and second toes
- Intellectual disability
- Congenital heart defects
- Duodenal atresia
- Tracheoesophageal fistula
Edwards Syndrome
Trisomy 18
- Prominent occiput
- Receding jaw
- Malformed and low set ears
- Short sternum
- Fists clench with 2nd and 5th digits overlapping 3rd and 4th digits
- Rocker-bottomed feet with prominent calcaneous bones
- Single palm creases with arch patterns on digits
- Hypoplastic nails
- Intellectual disability
- Failure to thrive
- Severe malformation of the heart
- Hypertonia
Patau Syndrome
Trisomy 13
Infants born with Patau generally do not survive past year 1
- Sloping forehead
- Microccephaly
- Wide, open sutures
- Micropthalmia
- Iris Coloboma (holes, defects in iris)
- Absence of the eyes
- Cleft lip
- Cleft palate
- Hands and feet may have polydactyly
- Rocker-bottomed feet
- Transverse palmar creases
- Fists clench with 2nd and 5th digits overlapping 3rd and 4th digits
- Growth retardation
- Severe intellectual disability
- Severe central nervous system malformations
- Arhinencephaly (absence of olfactory bulbs, tracts or nerves)
- Holoprosencephaly (failure of embryonic forebrain to develop into 2 hemispheres)
- Congenital heart defects
- Urogenital defects
Klinefelter Syndrome
(47,XXY)
Develop as males
- Phenotypes include tall stature, hypogonadism, under-developed secondary sexual characteristics, gynecomastia, usually infertile, some degree of language impairment
- Incidence is 1/1000 live male births, half of cases result from errors in paternal meiosis I due to failure of recombination in pseudoautosomal regions.
- About 15% of cases result from mosaicism, and the most common mosaic karyotype is 46,XY/47,XXY
47,XYY Syndrome
- Indistinguishable physically or mentally from normal males and are usually fertile
- Incidence is 1/1000 live male births, results from errors in paternal meiosis II, producing YY sperm.
- Increased risk of behavioral and educational problems, delayed speech and language skills
Turner Syndrome
45,X
Develop as females
- ≥99% of 45, X fetuses abort spontaneously
- Incidence is 1/4000 live female births, and most frequent karyotype is 45,X; 25% of individuals with Turner syndrome are mosaic.
- Phenotypes include short stature, webbed neck, edema of hands and feet, broad shield-like chest, renal and cardiovascular anomalies, and a failure in ovarian development
Incidence of Trisomy 21
~ 1/830 live births
Incidence of Trisomy 18
~ 1/7,500 live births
Incidence of Trisomy 13
~ 1/22,700 live births
Mosaicism
Defined as two or more chromosome complements present within a single individual
- commonly caused by nondisjunction in an early post-zygotic mitotic division
- effects on development vary with the timing of the nondisjunction event, the nature of the chromosomal abnormality, and the tissues affected
- germ line mosaicism can result from a mitotic nondisjunction event in a germ cell precursor
Mechanism of common chromosomal structural rearrangements
All chromosomal structural rearrangements require double strand breaks of the DNA and can be induced by a variety of DNA damaging agents such as ionizing radiation.
Duplications, deletions, inversions, insertions and translocations all appear to have breakpoints in regions of chromosomes in which repeated sequences are prevalent.
Structural rearrangements can be inherited and can also lead to further rearrangement during meiosis
Acrocentric chromosomes
13, 14, 15, 21, 22, Y
p (short) arm is so short that it is hard to observe, but still present
p arm contains genetic material including repeated sequences such as nucleolar organizing regions, and can be translocated without significant harm, as in a balanced Robertsonian translocation
Types of chromosomal structural abnormalities
Balanced; unbalanced
Balanced structural abnormalities
normal complement of chromosomal material
- Inversions
- Reciprocal translocations
- Robertsonian translocations