Chapter 5, Problem 22CONQ

On rare occasions, people are born with a condition known as uniparentaldisomy. It happens when an individual inherits both copies of a chromosome from one parent and no copies from the other parent. This occurs when two abnormal gametes happen to complement each other to produce a diploid zygote. For example, an abnormal sperm that lacks chromosome 15 could fertilize an egg that contains two copies of chromosome 15. In this situation, the individual has maternal uniparentaldisomy 15 because both copies of chromosome 15 were inherited from the mother. Alternatively, an abnormal sperm with two copies of chromosome 15 could fertilize an egg with no copies. This is known as paternal uniparentaldisomy 15. If a female is born with paternal uniparentaldisomy 15, would you expect her to be phenotypically normal, have Angelman syndrome (AS), or have Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS)? Explain. Would you expect her to produce normal offspring or offspring affected with AS or PWS?