What are genes?
• Genes determine specific traits that are passed down to you, or inherited, from your parents. These traits are things like eye color, hair color, skin tone, physical features, and the type of hemoglobin in your blood.
• Genes are pieces of DNA that help make you who you are.
• You inherit one set of genes from your mother and one set of genes from your father.
What is sickle cell disease?
• Sickle cell disease affects part of the red blood cells, called hemoglobin.
• Hemoglobin helps carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
How are genes related to sickle cell disease?
• Everyone has 2 hemoglobin genes. One gene is passed down from the mother and one is from the father.
• People with sickle cell disease inherit a hemoglobin S gene from one parent and another abnormal hemoglobin gene from the other parent.
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