Achondroplasia Kelly Correia and Alyssa Antonucci January 28, 2010 Hour 3

Achondroplasia is… A genetic condition Results in abnormally short stature -> Otherwise known as ‘Dwarfism.’ has to do with the bones and how they make bone instead of cartilage. What are some symptoms? a baby will have a relatively long torso and narrow torso and short extremities (arms & legs). typically have unusually large heads with prominence of the forehead. baby’s fingers appear short & the ring and middle finger move in different directions, giving the hand a three-pronged (trident) appearance. Did you know… Achondroplastic dwarfs’ average height is usually four feet 3 inches in males and four feet for females. There is no treatment for Achondroplasia. Jyoti Amge from India was diagnosed with Achondroplasia and is the shortest person in the world measuring in at 23 inches tall and weighs 11 pounds.

Achondroplasia is located on… Chromosome 4

Achondroplasia is inherited… as an autosomal dominant trait only a single copy of the abnormal gene is required to cause Achondroplasia. the chance of a baby being born and diagnosed with this condition has been shown to increase with paternal age, or the age of the father.

What are Alleles?! an Allele is one member of a pair or series of genes that occupy a specific position on a specific chromosome. We represent dominant alleles with a capital letter, like “R” and we represent recessive alleles with a lowercase letter, like “r”. When these two letters are put together, like Rr, it means the uppercase “R” is the dominant gene and the lowercase “r” is the recessive gene. You get one Allele from your mother and another allele from your father. You get two alleles for each gene. If the two alleles for one gene are the same, then the individual is homozygous for that gene. If the two alleles are different then the individual is heterozygous.

Punnett Squares Are Fun! F f F f Punnett Square 1: Aaaa AAAa A a a A Gggg GGGg G g g G Punnett Square 2: Punnett Square 3: R r Rr Punnett Square 4:

Red= (homozygous recessive) The person doesn’t have any of the bad genes. Half-Purple=The person has 1 bad gene and 1 healthy gene Full blue- (homozygous dominate) The person has both bad genes =Girl =Boy