| Single Gene Disorders and Disability (SGDD) |
What Are Genes?
Genes contain the instructions that tell the cells of people’s bodies how to
grow and work. For example, the instructions in genes control what color a
person’s eyes are and how tall a person will be. Each person gets half of
his or her genes from each parent, and that is why a person tends to look
like his or her parent.
Genes are stored in a chemical called
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA is a chemical chain made up of “bases”.
There are four bases: A, C, T, and G. The specific order, or sequence, of
these bases determines the exact information carried in each gene, like the
way that a specific pattern of letters makes up the words in a sentence.
For more details, click here.
What Are Mutations?
A mutation is any change in a gene that makes it different from the usual
copy (the copy that most people have). If the change causes a difference in
the way that the gene works, the person with the mutation could have a
particular condition (such as muscular dystrophy) that runs in the family.
Different changes run in families in different ways.
For more details on mutations, click here.
Date: August 28, 2006
Content source: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental
Disabilities
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