The karyotype of a young girl who is affected with familialDown syndrome revealed a total of 46 chromosomes. Her olderbrother, however, who is phenotypically unaffected, actually had45 chromosomes. Explain how this could happen. What wouldyou expect to be the numbers of chromosomes in the parents ofthese two children?
Genetic Variation
Genetic variation refers to the variation in the genome sequences between individual organisms of a species. Individual differences or population differences can both be referred to as genetic variations. It is primarily caused by mutation, but other factors such as genetic drift and sexual reproduction also play a major role.
Quantitative Genetics
Quantitative genetics is the part of genetics that deals with the continuous trait, where the expression of various genes influences the phenotypes. Thus genes are expressed together to produce a trait with continuous variability. This is unlike the classical traits or qualitative traits, where each trait is controlled by the expression of a single or very few genes to produce a discontinuous variation.
The karyotype of a young girl who is affected with familial
Down syndrome revealed a total of 46 chromosomes. Her older
brother, however, who is
45 chromosomes. Explain how this could happen. What would
you expect to be the numbers of chromosomes in the parents of
these two children?
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