Exam 2 Review Flashcards
What are the 6 violations of normal segregation behavior?
- Allele frequencies in populations (common recessive)
- Penetrance and expressivity in pedigrees
- Imprinting (Maternal or Paternal Effect)
- Segregation Distortion due to lethality
- Inbreeding effects: “male to male” X transfer
- New mutations
Can you define the inheritance pattern of a syndrome by looking at one pedigree?
No. Many pedigrees are required in order to define a syndrome.
What is unique about a common recessive allele and what is an example?
The recessive trait appears dominant in a pedigree because the allele is so common in a population
Example: O in ABO blood types
What type of inheritance is seen in this pedigree?
Common Recessive=Dominant
In a situation with incomplete penetrance, what is ambiguous about individuals appearing to be unaffected?
Unaffected individuals may still be heterozygotes even though they do not show the characteristic phenotype
On a pedigree: the trait will skip generations, even though it is dominant
What type of inheritance is seen in this pedigree?
Incomplete Penetrance
Describe variable expressivity
Multiple traits can be associated with a disease/syndrome. Different affected individuals can show different combinations of these traits, even though they all have the same genotype
What type of inheritance is seen in the pedigree?
Variable Expressivity
What is imprinting?
Certain genes are expressed in a parent-of-origin manner, meaning that the gene is only expressed if it comes from the father (in paternal imprinting) or mother (in maternal imprinting).
What type of inheritance is seen in the pedigree?
Paternal Imprinted Autos Dominant
What type of inheritance is seen in the pedigree?
Maternal Imprinted Auto Dominant
What type of inheritance is seen in the pedigree?
X Linked, Dom Hemis Abort
Explain why a pedigree could appear as though there is male-male passing of X chromosomes
In inbred populations, it may appear that an X-linked trait gets passed from a father to a son. In this situation, the mother must have been a carrier for the trait, and passed it on to her son.
What type of inheritance is seen in the pedigree?
X Linked Inbred “M to M”
What type of inheritance is seen in the pedigree?
Novel Mutation
What are the steps for characterizing genetic syndromes?
- Characterize propositus
- Identify affecteds
- Chard the pedigree and assess the phenotypic extent
- analyze segregation, assess expressivity/penetrance
- aggregate families and commence genome-wide association study, mapping
What is a propositus?
The person initially being studied, also referred to as the proband.
Labelled on pedigrees with a diagonal arrow pointing to the subject.
What does WGA stand for? Is it different than a GWA?
WGA=whole genome association study
GWA = genome wide association study
These mean the same thing: examining many common genetic variants to see if any variant is associated with a specific trait.
What is the Westermarck Effect?
People who live in close proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitized to later sexual attraction
Protection against close mating
Do first and second cousins experience the Westermarck effect?
They tend not to. In present U.S. society, cousins tend not to be raised in close proximity
What is the evidence that humans may be sexually attracted to genetically similar people?
Women tend to prefer males with 2-7 alleles in common to their father’s Leukocyte Antigen/MHC. They do not prefer perfect mathches or 0 mathches.
What is the inbreeding coefficient?
A measure of the level of consanguinity between two given individuals. This value approches 1 (100%) for individuals coming from a completely inbred population.
How is the inbreeding coefficient calculated?
Take consanguinous parents, and trace each individual path through their ancestors that connects them. Count the number of individuals involved in each path.
For each path: probability = (1/2)^(number of individuals in path)
Add up the probabilities for each path to get the coefficient of inbreeding.
Explain polygenic/complex inheritance
Alleles of different genes can impact the same phenotypic trait. This means that different genotypes can produce the same phenotype.
Example: Obesity is caused by many different genotypes, all leading to the same phenotype.
What is a quntitative trait?
A measurable physiological or biological quantity that shows continuous variation throughout a population.
Example: Height
What is a qualitative trait?
Traits that are either present or absent. Sometimes called ‘discrete traits’
Can a qualitative trait be polygenic?
Yes. Many genes can all contribute to the presence/absence of a trait.
What is a normal distribution?
Also called a Gaussian curve or Bell curve. This is a curve that is defined by the mean and the standard deviation of a population.
Example: If number of dominant alleles present in a poulation dictates the phenotype, then most individuals will have half dominant and half recessive, whereas very few will have all recessive or all dominant
What is an example of a qualitative trait that can be analyzed with quantitative genetics?
The color of rice hulls from a triple heterozygote X triple heterozygote cross.
The individual alleles determine red or white (qualitative) but the overall color is determined by the combination of the 3 alleles (quantitative).
What percentage of a population will have a quantitative trait that is greater than 2 standard deviations above or below the mean of the population?
5% will be outside of 2SD of the mean for a normally distributed trait
Define Variance in words (as opposed to the equation)
The aggregate difference between each individual and the mean value for a given trait
Why is standard deviation a more useful statistic than variance for looking at population distributions?
Standard deviation has the same units as the mean, whereas variance has units that are squared
In a trait that has little/no environmental effect, describe the overlap in phenotypes between individuals with different genotypes.
Low environmental effect: small phenotypic overlap between individuals with different genotypes
As the environmental impact on phenotypic expression increases, what happens to the variance?
Variance increases with environmental impact. The effect of the environment further spreads out the variations due to genetics.
What is the equation for Variance?
Vx = Σ(X-M)2 /N-1
X=each measurement
M= mean
N= number of observations
What is heritability?
the amount of phenotypic variance in a quantitative trait that is caused by genotypic rather than environmental influences
The fraction of the total phenotypic variance that is caused by genes
H= VG/VT
VG= variation of genotypes
VT= total variation
Does selection act at the genotypic or phenotypic level?
Selection ALWAYS acts at the level of the phenotype
Describe the distribution of a trait that has a high heritability compared to one that has a low heritability
A trait with a higher heritability will have a taller narrower gaussian curve (i.e. lower variance)
What is the Falconer’s threshold hypothesis?
Falconer postulated that everybody has a certain susceptibility (liability) for a disease. A threshold exists and people beyond that threshold will be affected.
Explain how the distribution of liability for a disease shifts for siblings of affected people
The curve is shifted to the right, so more people fall above the threshold, higher risk for having disease.
How can you estimate heritability from the liability distribution curves (based on Falconer)?
You compare the number of people (area under curve) that lie to the right of the threshold between the two groups: general population and sibs of affecteds.
What are the three corners of the triangle showing the causes for human disease?
Environment, single gene, and polygenic
What are the assumptions for the Hardy-Weinberg equation?
- No mate choice
- Two high frequency alleles
- No selection or genetifc drift
What are the two major flaws of the Hardy-Weinberg equation for humans?
Humans do not usually follow free breeding behavior (violates assumption of no mate choice)
There are favored phenotypes in humans (violates assumption of no selection/genetic drift)
What is the definition of a population?
A group of individuals from the same species that can interbreed
What is a subpopulation?
a local population that may enjoy/suffer partial mating isolation in relation to the total population
What does the Hardy Weinberg equation model?
It models the number of alleles that are available in a population to contribute to any genotype
What do P, H and Q represent in the Hardy Weinberg eqation?
They are the genotypic frequencies of homozygotes and heterozygotes
P = %AA
H = %Aa
Q = %aa
What are the equations associated with the HW equation?
P + H + Q = 1
p + q = 1
(p + q)2 = 1
p2 +2pq + q2 = 1