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Sickle Cell Disease Case Study

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Does mutations always lead to diseases? Mutation can either lead to diseases or be beneficial to an organism. The ability of DNA to mutate enables life to overcome changes in the environment. Mutation are a natural occurrence in all organism. It could occur spontaneously through errors during DNA replication. It could also occur when the organism is exposed to mutagens such as chemicals or radiation resulting in insertion, deletion or replacing DNA base. Not all mutations will affect the phenotype of the organism and cause disease. Some mutations have no noticeable effect because it occurs in a part of the protein that is not important to its function. Some mutations have been proven to have a positive effect on the human body, this leads to a new version of protein that can help an individual adapt better to the change in environment. To answer the question : Do mutations always cause diseases in human and does haemoglobin mutation have beneficial traits? Sickle cell disease will be used as a case study to answer the question.
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A summary of this refinement and the specific research question is Does haemoglobin mutation confer greater beneficial traits to an organism.
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This result in the substitution of glutamic acid that is normally the sixth amino acid in the beta globin polypeptide chain to valine. There are two forms of Sickle cell disease, the severe form, thalassemia major, results from a homozygous mutation in the beta globin gene. Whereas, thalassemia minor, is heterozygous for the mutation. Individuals with the disease have inherited anemia leading to fatigue and weakness. New reports have been published and proven that people with this disease are also resistant to the malaria

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