Sickle Cell Disease: A Genetic Analysis

Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder affects the shape of red blood cells. When the shape of red blood cells is changed, it is not able to move through blood vessels nearly as efficiently as red blood cells can in non sickle-cell people. Since these red blood cells can’t move through vessels efficiently, clotting will occur. People with sickle cell disease also have shorter life spans than those who have normal red blood cells. I found sickle cell disease interesting due to it having a high mortality rate, but the disease still being common in the population. Also, sickle cell heterozygous individuals have what is called a heterozygote advantage, which in itself is a pretty interesting concept. Also, sickle cell anemia is highly common …show more content…
So what this means is that an individual would need two of the sickle-cell mutations in order to have their red blood cells take the sickle cell shape. So, since oxygen is no longer able to get to places as effectively, sickle cell disease may result in shorter lifespans. When a genetic trait can be fatal, it will typically be taken out of a population due to natural selection. However, since those who are heterozygous for this trait have what is called a heterozygote advantage. In order to be heterozygous an individual must have one normal and one mutated gene. The specific advantage that the heterozygous individual gets is protection against malaria. Malaria is a mosquito-transmitted disease that is fatal. So, those that are heterozygous produce enough red blood cells to effectively transport oxygen, while they also get protection against malaria. This is why the mutation still exists in the population, even though it is know to cause …show more content…
Therefore there is only a twenty-five percent change that a child will receive sickle cell disease when there are two heterozygous parents. As recently stated, sickle cell disease is caused by a mutation. The National Human Genome Research Institute stated “Sickle cell disease is caused by a mutation in the hemoglobin-Beta gene found on chromosome 11” (2). So, the mutation specifically will lie on chromosome eleven with a beta-globin gene. This specific gene provides information on how to make a specific type of hemoglobin (3). Therefore, the mutated gene will change the information on how to make beta-globin successfully, ultimately changing the structure of red-blood cells. There are actually multiple types of sickle cell disease that will contain different changes in the information on how to make hemoglobin or that will affect the efficiency of