1. BLUE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY

2. We’re not talking about...
The smurfs
Clinically depressed people
Fans of B.B. King
The Blue Man Group

3. Ingesting elemental silver can also turn the skin blue
Ingesting elemental silver can also turn the skin blue. This man, Paul Karason, rubbed colloidal silver on his face and skin many years ago to treat a skin condition, which made him slowly turn a bluish/grey color.

4. WHO ARE THEY?
The "Blue People" are descendents of Martin Fugate, who suffered from a recessive gene which limits or stops
the production of the enzyme diaphorase.

5. The lack of this enzyme gives people a blueish cast to their skin rather than pink.
Few people still have this gene.

6. Researchers
Trudging up and down the hollows, fending off "the two mean dogs that everyone had in their front yard," the doctor and the nurse would spot someone at the top of a hill who looked blue and take off in wild pursuit. By the time they'd get to the top, the person would be gone.

7. Fugate Family Father + 4 children are blue

8. Luna Fugate and John Stacey

9. Lorenzo Dow Fugate and Eleanor Fugate
Lorenzo Dow Fugate and Eleanor Fugate Lorenzo Dow was also know as "Blue Anze"

10. Of Lonesome Creek, Kentucky

11. In Hazard, the County Seat

12. What makes them blue? Methemoglobinemia
Red blood cells (RBC) from blue people are deficient in NADH diaphorase activity and cannot reduce the oxidized iron in methemoglobin (metHb).

13. Symptoms
Blue colored skin
Headaches
Fatigue
Coma
Death

14. Blue Lips

15. Degree of Blueness
RBC from the parents of blue people (obligate heterozygotes for the blue trait - Bb) do contain some NADH diaphorase activity but not as much as homozygotes (BB) for the normal allele.

16. Let’s make a Pedigree
A chart of an individual's ancestors used in human genetics to analyze
Mendelian inheritance
of certain traits, especially of
family diseases.

18. Found on WikiPedia: There is a mistake here. Can you find it?
bb Bb BB

20. Pedigree Symbols

21. More Pedigree Symbols

23. Blue Pedigree of Fugates
= male with it
= female with it

25. Can you work out the genotypes?
Pedigree of Fugates
Can you work out the genotypes?

26. Pedigree with Genotypes
trait visible
carrier

28. Treatment The homozygous patient (bb)
daily ingestion of ascorbic acid to increase non- enzymatic reduction of methemoglobin
or the use of methylene blue.

30. Pedigree Animation
Media Showcase: Pedigree

31. You Will Make a Pedigree of Your Own Family
GET INSTRUCTION SHEET
Choose a trait from the lab of Variation of a Human Face (the one you drew the face on)