A hereditary disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait...

Question

A hereditary disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait1. The wild-type allele of the disease gene produces a mature mRNA that is 1250 nucleotides (nt) long. Molecular analysis shows that the mature mRNA consists of four exons that measure 400 nt (exon 1), 320 nt (exon 2), 230 nt (exon 3), and 300 nt (exon 4). A mother and father with two healthy children and two children with the disease have northern blot analysis performed in a medical genetics laboratory. The results of the northern blot for each family member are shown here.

Based on your analysis, what is the most likely molecular abnormality causing the disease allele?

Accepted Answer

Hi, everybody. Let's look at this question. It says northern blot analysis can help detect diseases by measuring the expression level of genes. Which of the following is measured by this method to determine gene expression A R N A B DNA C protein or D enzymes. Well, in the case of northern blood, you are looking for choice A R N A, you have AC DNA, a complementary DNA probe that is labeled and it hybridizes with the sequence of R N A you're looking for. And of course, if we want to look at gene expression, a good way to look at that is how much R N A has been described as that will be controlled by the various regulatory genes that determine expression. And it helps detect diseases. Because if you see, for instance, too much R N A being expressed for a particular gene, you might expect that there are some cancer cells present since cancer cells typically over express certain genes. If we see too little R N A on the northern block, compared to what we'd expect, you might suspect that the gene has been deleted or turned off due to a disease a condition. So that's how northern blots help to detect diseases. If we want to look at our other answer choices to understand why they're not correct. As in choice B, that would be a Southern plot, not the northern blot we're talking about in this question. So that's why choice B is not correct. And then choices C and D protein and enzymes. Of course, enzymes are types of proteins can be detected with a Western B block or sometimes an Eliza assay. Both of which use ant labeled antibodies to detect proteins or enzymes. So that's why choice of C and D are not correct. They're not detectable with northern blots. So again, northern blood analysis can help to detect diseases by measuring the expression level of genes. And what is it that is measured by this technique? Choice A R N A. See you in the next video.

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