Sickle Cell Anemia is an inherited disease of the red blood cells cause by a single based mutation in hemoglobin. 1 in 400 African Americans and 1 in 36,000 African Americans have Sickle Cell Anemia. Coach Bell's science students along with science students from James Clemens went to University of Alabama at Birmingham's Laboratory to explore Sickle Cell Anemia at the level of B-globin gene and at the level of the hemoglobin protein. To first test for Sickle Cell Anemia, you have to test how many bands amino acids there are. There is a long chain of 531 pairs of amino acids in a specific sequence. In this sequence, a restriction enzyme will cut it at 300 first and 231 if you're normal. If you have sickle cell, it won't cut at all because the sequence won't be there. If you are a carrier, you will have three bands. Students were exploring Sickle Cell Anemia at the DNA level. Students took the blood samples, buffer, bsa, bsu, and restriction enzymes. Students worked in pairs and were given a DNA sample labeled "Xc", "Xu", "Yc", " Yu" "Zc", and "Zu". The "c" represented the cut DNA and the "u" represented the uncut DNA. Students were to place samples in the centrifuge and spin briefly to collect the entire sample at the bottom of the tube. All samples were then placed in the hot block at 37 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes. During the incubation period, students prepared agarose gels for electrophoresis. Once all of this was complete, students were to draw their expected results on the page, take a picture off their gel, and label their samples x, y, and z. Students were looking for the Sickle Cell trait carrier with one band or a normal person with 2 bands.
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