Download Sickle Cell Disease Worksheet

Sickle Cell Disease Worksheet
Class set-don’t write on this paper
Read pages 347-348 (Honors pages 242, 317-318) in your book. Some of the questions below can be
answered from this reading. But some questions will require you to read through Blood: Bearer of Life
and Death. Copy each question down on your paper, leaving enough space for your answer.
1. Is there a cure for sickle cell disease (also called sickle cell anemia)?
2. What is the function of hemoglobin?
3. Each human cell has billions of nucleotides of DNA. The mutant gene that causes sickle cell
anemia contains a mistake in how many nucleotides?
4. How many globin (protein) chains are present in a hemoglobin molecule?
5. Where (geographically) did the sickle cell mutation originate?
6. Why is the disease called sickle cell disease?
7. Why might a person with sickle cell anemia have a stroke?
8. In countries where there is no treatment for sickle cell anemia, how long with children with this
disease live?
9. The abnormal hemoglobin in sickle cell disease results from the substitution of a single amino
acid. What is this substitution?
10. What is the precise DNA mutation that causes the amino acid substitution described in #9?
11. Which chromosome contains the genes that code for the beta-globin chains of hemoglobin?
12. Can sickle cell disease be diagnosed before birth?
13. A carrier of sickle cell anemia is a person with one normal hemoglobin gene and one defective
hemoglobin gene. If parents are both carriers, what is the chance that their child will have the
disease?
14. A carrier of the sickle cell gene actually has an interesting selective advantage (in some parts of
the world). What is this advantage?