Chapter 10, Problem 8.1P

Summary Introduction

To draw: The Punnett square illustrating the possible outcome of a pregnant woman with sickle cell trait and a man who has sickle cell anemia and to find out the probability of the child to have sickle cell anemia.

Introduction: Sickle cell anemia is an inherited autosomal recessive disorder. It is a type of hemolytic anemia that leads to increased destruction of red blood cells (RBCs), causing drastic reduction of hemoglobin content in the blood. In this anemia, the erythrocytes are sickle shaped instead of normal biconcave structure, and the hemoglobin of this abnormal RBC is called hemoglobin S (HB^s). This hemoglobin S can carry oxygen normally, but they have a very short life span of about 20 days instead of normal 120 days.