My Science Box

Sickle Cell Anemia
Sickle-shaped red blood cellsSickle cell disease is a disorder that affects the red blood cells. Red blood cells use a protein called hemoglobin to transport oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Normally, red blood cells are round and flexible so they can travel freely through the narrow blood vessels.

Patients with sickle cell disease have a mutation in a gene that codes for part of the hemoglobin protein. As a result, hemoglobin does not form properly, causing red blood cells to be oddly shaped. These irregularly shaped cells get stuck in the blood vessels and are unable to transport oxygen properly, causing pain, frequent infections, and damage to the organs. Patients with sickle cell disease only survive to be 20 to 30 years old. About 1 in 500 babies born in America has the disease.

The normal hemoglobin nucleic acid sequence looks like:
T A C C A C G T G G A C T G A G G A C T C
A T G G T G C A C C T G A C T C C T G A G

Use the genetic code below to decode the top strand of the DNA.

Genetic Code

• The messenger RNA would read:
• The protein message would read:

The mutant form of the hemoglobin gene is shown below with the mutation highlighted:
T A C C A C G T G G A C T G A G G A C A C
A T G G T G C A C C T G A C T C C T G T G

• Describe the difference between mutant allele and the normal allele.
• How would this mutation affect the hemoglobin protein that would normally be produced? In your answer, explain exactly what would happen to the amino acid sequence and how that might affect hemoglobin’s ability to do its job.

Sickle cell disease is a recessive genetic disease. The normal hemoglobin allele can be represented by “H” and the mutant allele can be represented by “h”.

• If you have sickle cell disease, what is your genotype? _____
• If you do not have sickle cell disease, what could your genotype be? _____ or _____

Jack and Jill were married one year ago and are thinking of starting a family. Neither has sickle cell disease. However, Jack’s younger sister is very sick with sickle cell disease. This has made Jack and Jill worried that a baby they have together may be born with sickle cell disease. Jack and Jill decide to get genetic testing to see whether either of them has a mutant hemoglobin gene. The results come back saying that both Jack and Jill are both Hh.

• What are the chances that their kids will have sickle cell disease. Explain completely how you know. Use a Punnett square to hel