Informative Speech On Sickle Cell

I remember a few months ago you asking me how you got sickle cell disease and if I have any knowledge about the disorder. Now, after doing some research, I hope I can be some help to you being able to understand the disorder after being diagnosed with it for so many years.

Like many disorders, sickle cell disease is inherited. A person who has the disorder must inherit the two genes for sickle hemoglobin from one’s parents. Many people could be carriers for the disease,possess no symptoms, and later pass it on to their own children. Furthermore, when you were conceived, you received a set of genes from your dad(sperm) and another set from your mom(egg). Inside structures, called chromosomes, where DNA is tightly coiled, there contained are

genes. Genes are responsible for genotype(gene pairs) and phenotype(physical) characteristics. Sickle cell disease was inherited from both of your parents where they each gave you two genes for the sickle hemoglobin. Since neither of your parents have sickle cell disease, this confirms that they are both heterozygous for the trait. You can determine the probability of getting this disease by performing a dihybrid cross of the alleles. When doing the cross, there is only a 25% chance that you could of gotten the disease(which occurred with you). There is a 75% chance that you would have not received the disease, like your sister. Your sister could have either gotten the homozygous trait, where there is no sickle cell gene, or could have gotten the heterozygous trait, determining she is a carrier of the disease. The probabilities are independent from one another each time your parents have a child. Therefore, each child has a one in four chance of developing the disorder.
Since you have been diagnosed with sickle cell disease for awhile, you probably know what it is. Anycase, I will just do a brief overview just incase you need a reminder. Hemoglobin allows red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout your body. If you have sickle cell disease, your red blood cells have become elongated and thin making it harder to carry oxygen. This can result in trouble breathing, chest pain, fatigue, paleness, and many other types of symptoms.
Looking more at the genetics portion of sickle cell disease, if you have one copy of the sickle cell allele, than half of your red blood cells will be misshaped while the other half is normal. This is a perfect example of codominance, where both traits are expressed at the same time. If you have two copies of the sickle cell allele, then you get anemia, which in turn proves that this is a recessive trait. The dominant trait allows for resistance which only one allele needs to be expressed.
I hope this overview of sickle cell disease helped you understand more of how you got the disease and how genetics plays a role in this disease. If you have any more biology questions about the disease, I will be glad to answer to the best of my ability. I hope this helped!