Chapter 3, Problem 31ESP

Summary Introduction

To determine: The probability of a family with five offspring in which exactly two children were suffering from sickle-cell anemia and both the parents are found to be heterozygous for sickle-cell anemia.

Introduction:

Sickle-cell anemia is a genetic disorder. Sickle-cell anemia is a best example for autosomal recessive disorder. So the individual suffering from sickle-cell anemia have two copies of the recessive allele. Whereas carriers have one dominant and one recessive allele. The individuals with sickle-cell anemia have sickle shaped red blood cell. This unusual shape of red blood cell is due to the presence of mutation in the hemoglobin gene.