A genetic study of an early onset form of heart disease ...

Question

A genetic study of an early onset form of heart disease identifies 10 families containing members with the condition. No clear dominant or recessive pattern of inheritance is evident, but an analysis of SNP markers for five families detects a strong association with a marker on chromosome 12, and genetic linkage analysis for the marker produces a lod score of 2.2.

What do the association and lod score results suggest about this genetic marker?

Accepted Answer

Hi, everyone. Let's take a look at this practice problem together in a genetic study of an early onset form of heart disease. A marker on chromosome eight was found to be associated with the disease. In six out of 10 families. Analysis of the marker produced A L O D score of 1.9. What do these findings suggest about the marker? The answer options are a, the marker is not associated with the disease. B, the marker is weakly associated with the disease C. The marker is strongly associated with the disease and D, the marker may be associated with the disease but further studies are needed to confirm the association. So recall that the L O D score tells us about the likelihood of the marker and disease gene being linked. Now, L O D scores that are equal to or greater than three indicate linkage, L O D scores of negative two or below that indicate no linkage. So for our question, the L O D score of 1.9 suggests that there is strong evidence of linkage between the marker and the disease. So we can eliminate option A that there is not an association in marker and option B that the marker is weakly associated. Now, the L O D isn't three, which is typically accepted as evidence of linkage. But in addition to that L O D score, the high association with the disease in six out of families indicates that there is enough evidence to support a strong association. So the correct answer is option C, the marker is strongly associated with the disease. All right, everyone. I hope you found this helpful and I'll see you soon for the next practice problem.

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