Exploring Sickle-cell Disease Genetics

What are the possible genotypes for offspring of a carrier and a person without the sickle-cell allele?

For sickle-cell disease, assume S is the dominant allele and s the recessive allele. Which genotypes are possible for offspring of a carrier (Ss) and a person who lacks the sickle-cell allele (SS)?

Answer:

The possible genotypes for offspring of a carrier and a person without the sickle-cell allele are SS and Ss.

When discussing the genetics of sickle-cell disease, it is important to understand the concept of dominant and recessive alleles. In this scenario, the dominant allele for sickle-cell disease is represented by S, while the recessive allele is represented by s.

When a carrier (Ss) and a person who lacks the sickle-cell allele (SS) have offspring, the Punnett square can be used to determine the possible genotypes. By crossing the alleles of the parents, we can see that the offspring can have genotypes of SS or Ss.

It is crucial to remember that in this case, the recessive allele (s) will not be expressed in the offspring because the dominant allele (S) is present in all possible combinations. This means that the offspring will either be carriers like the parent or have two dominant alleles.