A couple has three children, two without sickle cell anemia and one with sickle cell anemia. The mother has sickle cell anemia as well. while the father does not.

Question

A couple has three children, two without sickle cell anemia and one with sickle cell anemia. The mother has sickle cell anemia as well. while the father does not.

Make and defend a claim as to how this couple could have children with and without sickle cell anemia. Be sure to mention the process of meiosis in your answer!

(Must be at least 3 sentences.)

You can use the following sentence starters: "I believe that a couple can have children with and without sickle anemia because

Answer 1

during the process of meiosis, genetic information is shuffled and recombined. This means that each child inherits a unique combination of genes from their parents. Therefore, it is possible for the children to inherit the sickle cell trait from the mother, who has sickle cell anemia, but not from the father, who does not carry the gene. This would result in some children having sickle cell anemia while others do not. Meiosis brings about genetic diversity, making it possible for this variation to occur within a family.