Question

The sickle-cell mutation may cause medical complications when a person inherits two copies (one from each parent) of the sickle-cell gene. Consider the hypothetical case of baby Terra, and then propose an explanation for how the sickle-cell mutation has been maintained in the human population despite the health consequences associated with the inheritance of sickle-cell disease.

please help!!!!

Answer 1

see below

Step-by-step explanation:

this is because the sickle cell heterozygous have some advantages . take the example of malaria , in case of heterozygotes one gene is mutated , but the other gene remains functional. If plasmodium enters in such a individual, they can't survive since the shape of RBC becomes sickle shaped.

So they survive the malarial parasites more successfully than normal or sickle celled homozygotes .

So nature has maintained this trait despite the health consequences associated with the inheritance of sickle-cell disease.

Also this is case of stabilizing selection where nature favours the mean character.