Chapter 10, Problem 3CS

Summary Introduction

To review:

The likeliness of the effect of Dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) on an individual’s life span.

Introduction:

Dyskeratosis is a rare genetic disease. People with DKC have a mutation in the genes that produce enzyme telomerase, which replicates the telomere region of the chromosome. The telomere is the region present at the end of the chromosome that do not contain any functional DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). It contains guanine and cytosine-rich tandem repeats. Telomere region provides stability to the chromosome. As they donot have functional telomerase, successful telomere replication does not take place in their body.