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Sickle cell trait describes a condition in which a person has one abnormal allele of the hemoglobin beta gene (is heterozygous), but does not display the severe symptoms of sickle cell disease that occur in a person who has two copies of that allele (is homozygous).
Where malaria is common, carrying a single sickle cell allele (trait) confers a heterozygote advantage; humans with one of the two alleles of sickle cell disease show less severe symptoms when infected with malaria.
Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease" is a 1949 scientific paper by Linus Pauling, Harvey A. Itano, Seymour J. Singer and Ibert C. Wells that established sickle-cell anemia as a genetic disease in which affected individuals have a different form of the metalloprotein hemoglobin in their blood.
Sickle-cell disease is inherited in the autosomal recessive pattern. When both parents have sickle-cell trait (carrier), a child has a 25% chance of sickle-cell disease (red icon), 25% do not carry any sickle-cell alleles (blue icon), and 50% have the heterozygous (carrier) condition.
Hemoglobin C gene is found in 2-3% of African-Americans while 8% of African-Americans have hemoglobin S (Sickle) gene. Thus Hemoglobin SC disease is significantly more common than Hemoglobin CC disease. The trait also affects people whose ancestors came from Italy, Greece, Latin America, and the Caribbean region.
Sickle-cell anemia (SCA) is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of two incompletely recessive alleles. When a sufferer's red blood cells are exposed to low- oxygen conditions, the cells lose their healthy round shape and become sickle-shaped.