[sci.bio] Four Tay-Sachs mutations

wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) (02/18/89)

In article <2103@aecom.YU.EDU> werner@aecom.YU.EDU (Craig Werner)
writes:

	The plot thickens even more when you consider that the Tay-Sachs
	mutation actually arose at least four separate times indepen-
	dently (that is, there are four distinct gene patterns, all
	distinguishable from one another by standard molecular genetic
	techniques that cause a defect in the same enzyme, and thus
	create the Tay-Sachs trait.  This is quite a large number when
	you consider that Sickle Cell seems only to have arisen twice.

Are these four gene patterns mutually "compatible"?  Stated another way,
if a child inherits a different version of the TS gene from each parent,
will he still develop Tay-Sachs disease?

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