MULUNGUSHI UNIVERSITY.

SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY.

2021/2022 ACADEMIC YEAR.

STUDENT NAME: PHERIDA FRIDAH BANDA.

STUDENT NUMBER: 201901607.

COURSE CODE: BIO322.

COURSE: GENETICS.

PROGRAM: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES IN MICROBIOLOGY.

ASSIGNMENT NUMBER:ONE (1).

LECTURER’S NAME: MS. SIYANKUKU MUNSAKA.

Chromosomal changes are alterations and rearrangements in the number of

chromosomes and chromosome structure that can cause problems with the growth,
development and function of the body’s system. These changes include variation in
the number, size and structure of one or more chromosomes. These changes usually
occur due to errors during the diving of cells which is meiosis, dividing of other cells
which is mitosis and also due to exposure to substances that cause birth defects.

There Aretha types of changes and that includes numerical changes and structural
chromosomal changes and changes in chromosomal number and all fall into two
broad classes that is; Euploidy and Aneuploidy. Euploidy refers to the state of having
a chromosome number that is an exact multiple of a chromosome while Aneuploidy
refers to a condition which one or a few chromosomes are deleted from the normal
chromosome number.

Euploidy often leads to formation of new species and is rare in animals with an
exception of fish but mostly occurs in plants especially flowering plants, bananas and
wheat inclusive. Euploidy (Eu=true) can be presented as ploidy(n) and ploidy is the
number of sets of homologous chromosomes in the genome of a cell. Examples of
Euploidy include monoploidy where ploidy

= 23, and n =1, meaning that an organism has a set of chromosomes. Haploid is
another example of Euploidy which occurs when there are half chromosomes of the
somatic cells meaning that instead of 46 chromosomes there are only 23
chromosomes. Another examples is diploid which is the state of having two sets of
chromosomes especially in somatic cells represented by n (2) that is 23*2= 46
chromosomes. When there is anything where n is above 2 then it’s Polyploidy, and
there are two types of polyploidy that’s auto polyploidy when polyploidy is generated
from the organism’s body itself and allopolyploid when the polyploidy originates
from hybridization between two different species. examples of polyploidy include
triploid which is 3(n) where 3(23) is 69 chromosomes. This is simply the presence of
an additional set of chromosomes in the cell for a total of 69 chromosomes rather than
the normal 46 chromosomes per cell. Another example of polyploidy is tetraploid and
this is a rare chromosomal abnormality where an affected individual has four copies
of each chromosome, it usually occurs during meiosis in regular plants and
chromosomes fail to segregate properly to the daughter cell.

Another class of numerical chromosomal changes is Aneuploidy which is

frequently occurs in animals and as a condition is not a multiple of n resulting from
either the decrease or increase of the chromosome number. It has two subclasses
which are hyperdiploidy and hypodiploidy, an example of hypodiploidy is monosomy
represented by 2n-1 and this is the presence of a single chromosome in the
homologous pair. An example of monosomy is Turner’s syndrome 45(X,0).

And an example of hyperdiploidy is trisomy which is a condition that involves having

an additional copy of a chromosome present in the genome. Trisomy where an
individual has 47 chromosomes instead of 46 chromosomes and is represented by
2n+1 and examples of the autosomal genetic disorder includes trisomy 21 known as
Down syndrome which causes developmental and intellectual delay,

Edward syndrome (trisomy 18) and patau (trisomy 13). And an example of the sex
chromosomal disorder is Klinefelter syndrome for example where a male has XXY
chromosomes meaning the individual has a Y chromosome giving him traits of a
female or rather feminine character.

There are also structural changes that include duplications which is the production
of one or more copies of a gene or region of a chromosome. Gene and chromosome
duplications occur in all organisms although they are prominent among plants. A
deletion also called gene deficiency or deletion mutation is a mutation in which a part
of a chromosome or a sequence of DNA is left out during DNA replication. Another
structural chromosome change is inversion in which a chromosome rearrangement in
which a segment of a chromosome is reversed end to end at 180 degrees and occurs
when a single chromosome undergoes breakage and rearrangement within itself and
there are two types that is paracentric and pericentric. And lastly there is
translocations where a piece of one chromosome breaks off and attaches to another
chromosome. This type of rearrangement is described as balanced. If there is a gain or
loss of genetics materials the translation is described as unbalanced.

However, the changes in chromosomal structure and chromosome number results

into various conditions and they are both advantageous and disadvantageous and here
are some of the implications. Chromosomal changes are advantageous to humans in
terms of survival where mutations have allowed humans to adapt to their
environments. For example, humans that are lactose tolerance have been able to live
in environments that raise cattle and goats.

Another advantage of chromosomal changes in bacteria is that some mutations

have been responsible for the antibiotic resistance, sickle cell resistance to malaria
and immunity to HIV among others and this has helped bacteria to survive.

A rare gene mutation leading to unusual shortness of heights has proven to be

advantageous for a particular Ecuadorian country and this gene called Laron
Syndrome are protected against cancer and diabetes. Another advantage of
chromosomal changes is that mutation have allowed humans to be diverse or the
mutations results into diversity in accordance with molecular biology, originally we
all had brown eyes but a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our
chromosome resulted in the creation of a switch which literally turned off the ability
to produce brown eyes. This diversity all lead to different hair colors, baldness,
freckles and beauty spots were all bought about by mutations. Another advantage of
genetic chromosomal changes such as deletions is that some genes that are deleted
would lead to health problems has they been expressed. Some genes would lead to
over expression for example some humans would have six fingers while some would
lead to over growth of hair were hair would grow in wrong body parts. Another
advantage of chromosomal changes is that it improves yields in that if the crops
grown would be bigger than normal.

The changes in chromosomes or protein sequence brings about enhancements as the

fruits she vegetables grown are bigger and more attractive. Chromosomal changes are
also advantageous in a way such that they lead to variation or diversity of plants as
some plants that are grown by chromosomal changes are in extinct or never existed.
Another advantage is that plants resulting from chromosomal changes are sweeter, the
fruits are bigger, greener leaves, new colors of plants and fruits and also larger seeds.

In spite of all the advantages that chromosomal changes have there are
disadvantages too and these are as follows; mutations can be helpful to humans but
they also cause some diseases such as cancer which is a disease in which abnormal
cells divide uncontrollably and destroy body tissues, diabetes which is a group of
diseases that result in too much sugar in the blood (high blood glucose) and this
chronic disease affects the way the body processes blood sugar.

Another disadvantage of this disease is that the fruits that are genetically modified
lack seeds hence can lead to extinction of certain fruits and growing or breeding
seedless fruits is the reduction in the diversity of cultivated fruits, leading to a high
susceptibility to pests and diseases which could wipe out all of these genetically
identical clones. Another disadvantage of chromosomal changes is that when bacteria
are exposed to antibiotics they develop antibiotic resistance which means that once
they enter to humans or a host body, they cannot be killed or destroyed hence makes it
difficult or impossible to fight diseases with antibiotics

Chromosomal changes resulting from having an extra chromosome can lead to

conditions such as Down syndrome also known as trisomy 21 which hinders the
development and intelligence of an individual and lasting chromosomal changes
resulting from deletions can be disadvantageous because small deletions removes one
or a few nucleotides within a gene while larger deletions can remove the entire gene
or several neighboring genes. The deleted DNA may alter the function of the affected
protein or proteins and the results
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