Question

After graduating from college, you decide to put your biology skills to work at a local company that does genetic counseling. Your first case is working with a couple that is trying to decide if it would be wise to conceive a child given the family’s genetic history with Huntington’s disease. This is a very damaging neurological disorder that usually strikes individuals later in life. The Huntington’s disease allele is a dominant allele (represented as "H"). Individuals who will not develop Huntington’s disease carry two copies of the recessive allele (represented as "h"). After testing both the wife and the husband, you determine that the wife’s genotype is hh and the husband’s genotype is Hh.
a)Which of them will eventually develop Huntington’s disease?
b)What are the possible genotypes for their children? What is the chance that their child will inherit Huntington’s disease?

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answers are a) "the husband", b) The possible genotypes for their children are Hh and hh, while the child have a 50% chance of inherit Huntington’s disease.

Explanation:

Huntington’s disease is a very damaging neurological disorder that follows an autosomal dominant inheritance. This means that a healthy person has two copies of the recessive allele "h", while a person with Huntington’s disease has at least a copy of the dominant "H" allele. Since the husband genotype is Hh, he is going to develop the Huntington’s disease eventually. Also, it should be informed to the couple that their children could either have the Hh or the hh genotype with a 50% chance of having either of the genotypes, which means that their child has a 50% chance of developing the Huntington’s disease.