Some possible bearings of genetics on pathology — John Shaqi
Some possible bearings of genetics on pathologyMorgan, Thomas Hunt
Science
Some possible bearings of genetics on pathology
Morgan, Thomas Hunt
Diseases -- Causes and theories of causation; Genetics; Heredity; Pathology
Accepting this evidence as on the whole satisfactory, there is still
something more to be said. As is well-known there are many grades
of color-blindness. We do not know whether these grades are due to
fluctuating (individual) variations—assuming it to be due to one gene:
or whether there are several genes that differ in the degree to which
they produce the defect. In fact we know now of a good many cases in
other animals where there are several mutations of the same gene.
For instance, in Drosophila there is a series of ten such multiple
allelomorphs for eye colors that range from pure white to deep wine-red.
There is still another possible interpretation of the different kinds
of color-blindness—one which _a priori_ would seem to be the most
probable—namely, that the differences are due to other modifying genes
that affect the extent to which the character develops.
While in the great majority of cases, the scheme of color-blindness is
that shown by the diagram, we know that occasionally the machinery may
be changed to give a somewhat different result. It is possible, for
example, that a color-blind man married to a perfectly normal woman may
rarely produce a color-blind son. A few years ago such a result would
have appeared to upset the entire scheme of sex-linked inheritance, today
we understand how such cases may arise through a process that is called
non-disjunction, which is best illustrated by numerous cases well worked
out in Drosophila.
My second illustration has a more obvious chemical basis. Hemophilia is
also sex-linked in inheritance. It is known to be much more common in
men than in women, the explanation for this is the same as in the other
case. In affected individuals the blood fails to coagulate quickly and
the difference in chemical composition of the blood is, in contrast to
normal, the inherited character.
[Illustration: FIG. 8. Representing the kinds of individuals expected
when an individual of the blood group type AaBb marries individual of the
same blood type, namely AaBb. Sixteen kinds of individuals are possible
in the ratio of 9:3:3:1. These belong to four blood types, namely, class
IV that contains at least one A and one B; class II that contains at
least one A but no B; class III that contains at least one B but no A;
and class I that contains neither A nor B.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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