Chapter 19, Problem 1CS

If you suspected that heterozygous carriers of a particular disease gene had a selective advantage in resisting a type of infection, how would you go about testing that hypothesis?

Summary Introduction

To determine: The way for testing of the hypothesis that the heterozygous carriers of a particular disease may have a differential advantage in resisting a particular type of infection.

Introduction: Allele refers to a pair of genes present on a chromosome. Alleles can exist as homozygous or heterozygous pairs. Heterozygous is a term used when different alleles of particular genes are present.

Explanation of Solution

Genetic testing will help in gathering information or evidence concerning the hypothesis that the frequency of an allele of a specific genome is advantageous over the other in a given population.

In order to find out whether a particular gene is responsible for causing disease, has an advantage over the other, genetic testing is performed. In this type of testing, various samples of both the indigenous and non-indigenous population are collected and analyzed. The survival rate and reproduction rate of both of the populations are analyzed.

Another way is to conduct experiments on model organisms that are heterozyogous and homozygous carriers. Expose the heterozygous and homozygous carriers of both the populations to a particular disease, and then analyze both the groups for their survival and reproduction rates.

Hence, genetic testing and experimentation on model organisms are ways for testing the hypothesis that heterozygous carriers for a specific disease had a selective advantage in infection certain type of infection.