Question: Is Systic Vibroses a genetic desiese1 Please help im really stuck!

Georgia Campbell answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease caused by a mutation in a gene called CFTR, which is one of the many genes that codes for information that helps keep your lungs working properly. One of the main symptoms of cystic fibrosis is difficulty breathing, caused by a buildup of thick mucus in the lungs. It can cause a lot of other nasty symptoms too – poor growth, increased risk of heart and lung disease, and problems with digesting food are some of the most common. It’s a really hard disease for people to cope with 🙁

Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease though – this means that of the two copies you have of the CFTR gene, both have to contain a mutation for you to have the disease. If you have one bad copy and one good copy of the gene, the good (or ‘wildtype’ copy) compensates for the bad copy, and you don’t get ill – this does make you a ‘carrier’ for the disease though, which means its more likely that you could have a child with cystic fibrosis.