Genetics Case Study The Royal Family The Romanov

Genetics Case Study: The Royal Family

The Romanov Family • Romanov Empire included one-sixth of the globe. • Nicholas II became Czar of Russia in 1896 • Resentment against the Czar and wealthy class begins at end of 19 th century.

Alexei • Born in 1904, Nicholas’s only son. • Had hemophilia, a bleeding disorder. • Had body guard with him at all times to prevent accidents. • Alexei had several internal bleeding instances. • These bleedings were stopped after the prayers of the healer Rasputin.

Rasputin • Healer or Scoundrel? ? • Alexandra (Alexei’s mom) called Rasputin in to stop Alexei’s bleeding. • Alexandra took Rasputin in as a relative (which lowered public faith of the Romanov family). His influence on the Czar is arguable by historians. • Assassinated by Russian aristocrats.

Rasputin • Rasputin was drugged, poisoned, and shot before he died of drowning in the Neva river

End of the Empire • July, 1918: Russian Revolution (Romanov’s assassinated) • Alexei’s body missing from mass grave found in 1990’s.

So what does this have to do with Genetics? Learn how to read a PEDIGREE. Learn the inheritance pattern of HEMOPHILIA.

Royal Family Pedigree

Pedigrees • Each row represents a generation • Genders represented by different shapes • Affected individuals indicated by shading • Carriers indicated by half shading Easy to see if: • trait skips a generation (recessive) • appears in both genders (autosomal)

Sex-Linkage • Traits controlled by genes located on the sex chromosomes are called sex-linked traits. • The gene for a protein that helps blood clot is on the X chromosome. • If this gene is mutated (deletion, point mutation, etc), it may cause HEMOPHILIA. • Other sex-linked traits are red-green colorblindness, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and Fragile X syndrome.