2009 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2009. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.

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How are children from inter-family marriages affected genetically?
     David Bodine, M.D., Ph.D.: I investigate the genetics of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (PHSCs) to improve the effectiveness of bone marrow transplantation and to find better ways to use these unique cells for gene replacement therapy. Usually not at all. However, all of us carry a certain number of deleterious genes that are heterozygous with a normal allele. There are lots of these mutations and genes, and people from different families usually have different sets of deleterious genes. When there is an inter-family marriage, the family members often share some of the deleterious genes, increasing the possibility that a kid will be homozygous for the deleterious gene. We're getting better at identifying the deleterious mutations but we have a very long way to go to know how many and which ones they are.
Alexa Jessie, Clara,Lisa:D in CA (10th grade student)

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