Animal Genetics: Horseplay Or Nay?

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Name: Benjamin Leamey Student Number: 11577028 Course: ASC221 Phone no.: 0422176073 Email: ben.leamey@gmail.com Lecturer: Sam Pant Subject Code: ASC221 Subject Name: Animal Genetics Assignment No.: 1 Due: 18 September, 2015 Word count: 1000 No. of pages: 8 Karyotypes: Horseplay or nay? Introduction Karyotyping is a test that can be performed on a eukaryotic cell to examine the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus. Karyotyping can be used to help identify genetic problems as the cause of a disorder or disease, such as Down syndrome. A karyotype test is very versatile, and can be performed on almost any tissue, such as blood, bone marrows, amniotic fluid, and if need be, the placenta of a pregnant woman. To make …show more content…

Karyotyping is very suitable for this experiment, “…we are able to arrest the dividing cells in metaphase by the addition of colchine and an acetic/menthol mixture, causing the cells to burst and spread chromosomes.” (Urwin 2015). We are performing this experiment to determine if from the samples it is a normal human male or a horse suffering from lymphocytes, as many genetic diseases in animals and humans are a result of alterations in chromosomal structure, such as translocations, deletions and sometimes mutations …show more content…

These two blood samples that we observed were the karyotypes of a female human and a female horse. What is significant about this experiment is the fact that neither sample A3 or B23 suffer from any form of variance. We can confirm that the human karyotype is healthy, supported by Pathology (2015), and the horse karyotypes are also healthy, with evidence from Horseman (2015). From the images provided we can see there is no significantly apparent mutation or missing chromosomes. As a karyotype test provides information about the number of chromosomes a person has, the structure of their chromosomes and the sex of the individual, it is able to distinguish if said person will suffer from any sort of disorder, such as Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a congenital condition caused by an extra chromosome. “For example, if a human karyotype depicts that a patient has three copies of the 21st chromosome, instead of two, the patient is diagnosed with Trisomy 21, also known as Down's syndrome”. (Innovateus.net, 2015) This is one significant way that karyotyping is used in the modern

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