Genetic Disorders: Marfan Syndrome

Words: 360
Pages: 2

My chosen disorder is Marfan syndrome. A model organism used to study Marfan syndrome are mice. In humans, Marfan syndrome is caused by the lack of FBN1 protein production, due to a fibrillin-1-gene mutation. Mice are often used in studying Marfan syndrome since they are easily taken care of, have a high reproduction rate, and have a fully shotgun sequenced genome. Scientists are able to view genetic mutations in mice and see how mutations in the genome correlate to mutation phenotypes. In the research paper, A new Mouse Model for Marfan Syndrome Presents Phenotypic Variability Associated with the Genetic Background and Overall Levels of Fbn1 Expression, a group of scientists utilized a mouse model to further investigate the relationship