Week 1 Day 3 BOW 1: Genome Chapter 4 Summary: Fate

In chapter 4 of the book Genome by Matt Ridley, the author specifically wrote about the genetic diseases on chromosome 4.  Ridley start off with talking about how people tend to have the wrong perception of a gene related disease.  When stating how the Wolf-Hirschhorn gene affect the disease, Ridley states it is because the person lack the gene, thus the Wolf-Hirschhorn disease occur.  Ridley then goes on into the Huntington's disease.  Huntington's disease is a mutated genetic dominant disease that occur as the sequence CAG continuously repeat itself.  If CAG is repeated more than thirty-nine times, then an individual has Huntington's disease.  Huntington's disease will cause the patient to lose balance, deteriorate the brain, jerking limbs, and occasional hallucination and delusions.  The disease cannot be cured.  The rest of the chapter describes that people with a family history of Huntington's disease has a 50% chance of getting it.  This means either you get the disease or you do not.  The chapter also explore several villages with Huntington's disease and how scientists go out into the villages to trace the ancestry as well as diagnose people with the disease.