Genetic Disorders Flashcards
How is cystic fibrosis caused?
By a recessive allele.
‘f’ carried by about 1 person in 25.
What is cystic fibrosis?
A genetic disorder of the cell membrane.
Results in the body producing a lot of thick sticky mucas in their air passages and in pancrease.
What does it mean that the cystic fibrosis allele is recessive?
People with only one copy of the allele won’t have the disorder they are known as carriers.
How does a child actually get cystic fibrosis?
If both parents are carriers or sufferers.
Polydactyly is caused by what?
A dominant allele.
What is polydactyly?
A genetic disorder where a baby is born with extra finger and toes.
Its not life threatening.
How is polydactyly caused?
By a dominant allele.
‘D’ so it can inherited by just one parent who carries the defective allele.
What happens to the parent who has the dominant allele?
They also sufferer.
Embryos can be screened for what?
Genetic disorders.
Name 4 reasons why people are againt embryonic screening?
May come a point when everyone wants to screen their embryos to pick the most desirable ones.
Rejected embryos are destroyed.
Implies that people with genetic problems are ‘undesirable’.
Its expensive.
Name 4 reasons why people are For embryonic screening?
Stop people suffering.
Laws to stop it going too far.
During IVF most embryos are destroyed, screening allows the selected ones to be healthy.
Treating disorders casts government a lot of money.
What is the process of embryonic screening?
During in virto fertilisation, embryos are fertilised in a laboratory and then implanted into a mother womb.
More than one egg is fertilised so theres a better chance of the VF being successful.
Before being implanted its possible to remove a cell from each embryo and analyse its genes.
Many genetic disorders are detected this way.
Embryos with good alleles will be implanted into the mother - bad alleles are destroyed.
