Have you ever heard someone talking about dogs, and they’ve mentioned Pedigree.
Your pedigree is essentially your family history. If a dog has a pure pedigree, it means his/her parents are the same breed.
However, we’re not talking about dogs. We’re talking about people, and more specifically genetics.
To the right, is a basic pedigree.
Scroll over each individual.
The pedigree shows Tim and Jessica’s children: John, Sophie and Bec. Joe, was not part of the family, but he had a child (Sarah) with Bec.
We can use a pedigree to identify the likely hood of someone developing a specific genetic disorder.
Observe the pedigree to the left. It shows which individuals in the family have sickle cell anaemia.
By looking at this, we can determine if the genetic disorder is dominant or recessive and the likely hood of individuals offspring inheriting the disease.
Questions
1. Create a pedigree with your family history using eye colour. Choose a side (mother or father) and go back 2 generation. Your parents generation, grandparents generation and your generation
2. Turn the following information into a pedigree.
Joe has recently been diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome, this is an Autosomal recessive disorder. Joe marries Jessica who has no family history of the disorder. They have 3 children, Tom, Peter and Emily. Tom and Emily are carriers of the disease, however Tom is not. Emily has a child with Ethan, who is a carrier. They have 2 children. Aaron and Henry. Aaron is diagnosed with the disorder while Henry is not.
