Whats a technique used to identify people at risk of passing genetic disorders to their children?

Question

Describe a technique used to identify people at risk of passing genetic disorders to their children? tell me what it is, how you do it, and describe it.

Answer 1

Pedigree Analysis. it is a family tree made by taking a thorough history of the previous ancestral generations, actually karyotyping is quite useful in determining the genetic constitution of the parents in terms of the chromosomes but not on the level of genes. i.e. if the mother is a carrier of haemophilia it will not show up on the karyotype as the defect lies in the genes and the chromosomes as such do not display any anomaly but it is generally seen that such disorders can be recognized and delineated if a family history is taken for someone or the other in the family would inadvertently suffered from a full blown form of that disease.. also most of the chromosomal defects usually have a pronounced phenotypic expression. for example if there is a trisomy of chr 21, the individual presents with the downs syndrome. any deletion or duplication will have a profound external manifestation.

Answer 2

On esuch method is called karyotyping. A karyotype is a pictorial display of all the chromosomes in an individual. Some DNA (most likely a somatic cell) is removed from an organism, the clel is cultured and the chromosomes are arranged in their 23 pairs. This works best to detect abnormailities in chromosome number.
There are possibly a few other techniques.
Hope this helps!

Answer 3

You need to have genetic testing performed, but with this information you can find out with the help from a genetic counselor (at you local county health clinic).