Question

Because sickle cell anemia is an autosomal recessive disease, there is a __________% chance that the child of two carriers will have the disease.

Answer 1

The chance that the child of two carriers will have sickle cell anemia is 25%.

Step-by-step explanation:

The chance that the child of two carriers will have sickle cell anemia is 25%.

When both parents are carriers (heterozygous), they each have one normal allele (A) and one sickle cell allele (S).

The Punnett square for this situation shows that there is a 25% probability of the child inheriting two sickle cell alleles (SS), which results in sickle cell anemia.

It's important to note that there is a 50% chance that the child will be a carrier like the parents (AS), and a 25% chance that they will inherit two normal alleles (AA) and not have the disease.