Determining The Chances Of Inheriting Genetic Disorders
Often, genetic disorders run in the family
Often, genetic disorders run in the family. Depending on the type of gene mutations that occurred in the genes, the risks of passing the illnesses on to the next generation vary. Mostly, the risks of developing a genetic disease can be hard to determine because other factors such as the environment play a role.
At any rate, the pattern from which genetic disorders are obtained can be a determining factor. There are six ways that a disorder is inherited, namely the Autosomal dominant, the Autosomal recessive, X-linked dominant, X-linked recessive, Codominant, and Mitochondrial.
People who are afflicted by Autosomal dominant inheritance have 50% chances of passing the mutated genes to their children. Children who have parents with Autosomal dominant diseases have 50% chances of not inheriting the mutated genes.
In Autosomal recessive inheritance, two individuals who do not suffer from a genetic disorder, yet each carriers in his and her cells a copy of the mutated gene have 25% chances of passing the genetic illness to every pregnancy. With each pregnancy, the chance of having an un-afflicted child who carries the illness is 50%, while the child's chance of not inheriting the disorder and not being a carrier of the mutated gene is 25%.
The X-linked dominant inheritance has striking difference in passing the disorder because men have XY chromosomes while women have XX chromosomes. A father's Y chromosome is passed on to all his sons and his X chromosome is passed on to all his daughters. Thus, the sons whose father has an X-linked dominant disorder will not be affected. However, the daughters whose father is affected by an X-linked dominant illness will also inherit the disease.
On the other hand, one or the other of a woman's XX chromosomes can be passed on to each child. Thus, the chance of a woman affected by an X-linked dominant disease to pass on similar disorder to every pregnancy is 50%.
In X-linked recessive inheritance, however, the chances of passing the disorder vary because of the variations in sex chromosomes in a way that sons whose father has the X-linked recessive illness will not be affected, while daughters will inherit one copy of the mutated gene. In each pregnancy, a woman affected by an X-linked recessive illness has 50% probability of passing the disorder to her sons, and 50% chances of passing one copy of the mutated gene to her daughters.
Each parent affected by Codominant inheritance has a varying version of contributing a specific gene. However, both versions have an impact on the resulting characteristics of the gene. Therefore, with Codominant inheritance, the chance of developing genetic disorder and the characteristics of that disorder depends on which version of the gene is passed on to the child from parents.
The genetic disorders obtained from Mitochondrial inheritance are a consequence of mutations in mitochondrial DNA. While the illnesses can affect both men and women, only women can pass the gene mutations in mitochondrial DNA on to their children, regardless of the sex. However, men who have Mitochondrial inheritance of diseases cannot pass on the mutated genes to his children.
Other than the inheritance, the chances of obtaining the mutated genes can also be affected by an individual's family history and the results of Genetic test.
by: Charles Godbout
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