8. DNA Replication
Telomeres and Telomerase
Problem 38a
Textbook Question
Textbook QuestionGo to the OMIM website (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim) and type 'dyskeratosis congenita autosomal dominant 1' (DKCA1) into the search bar. The result will include a clickable link to the disorder that has an OMIM number of 127550. Review the OMIM information you retrieve and notice that this disorder is caused by a mutation of a telomerase gene that results in abnormally rapid shortening of telomeres and the appearance of disease symptoms at progressively younger ages in successive generations of the affected families. Use this and other information on OMIM to assist with this problem. Go the reference number 15 at the bottom of the OMIM page for a link to a 2004 paper by Tom Vulliamy and colleagues that appeared in the journal Nature Genetics. Click on the 'Full text' option and download a copy of the paper. Look at Table 1 of the paper on page 448. This table lists the lengths of telomeres measured in members of the families in this study. Telomeres shorten with age, and the telomere lengths in Table 1 are age-adjusted. The negative numbers for telomere lengths in the table indicate that telomeres are shorter than average for age, and the more negative the number, the shorter the telomere. Based on Table 1, discussion in the Vulliamy et al. (2004) paper, and information available on OMIM answer the following: How do telomere lengths in children compare with telomere lengths of their parents?
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