Type II Diabetes: Genetic Linkage 1

Type II Diabetes: Genetic Linkage

Baiyina Maw

Salt Lake Community College

Type II Diabetes: Genetic Linkage 2

Abstract

This paper is going to be my view into Diabetes and to find out if it is genetically linked to one’s

offspring. I chose diabetes because both of my parents have type II diabetes. I learned that Type

II diabetes is hereditary but not necessarily genetically linked. I found out that I have a higher

chance of developing diabetes simply from the fact that both of my parents have diabetes. There

are other factors to developing diabetes. It is not only brought on my being hereditary but also by

lifestyle and diet.

Type II Diabetes: Genetic Linkage 3

When stating genetic linkage regarding diabetes, what do I mean? To get more in

depth I need to start with giving a brief definition of Genetic Linkage. According to

Reece, Urry, Cain, Wasserman, Minorsky and Jackson ( 2014), ‘’ Genes located near

each other on the same chromosome tend to be inherited together in genetic crosses; such

genes are said to be genetically linked (p.299)’’. When thinking about this you also must

know that chromosomal inheritance theory plays a big part in this as well. In my brain

and how I worked this out was that genetic linkage and chromosomal inheritance theory

go hand in hand. When reading this chapter, I started wondering if certain disorders are

genetically linked from parent to child.

A disorder or disease I started thinking about was Type II diabetes. Why type II diabetes

out of all the diseases and disorders? Well both of my parents have type II diabetes. I

began to wonder if this disease is something that can be genetically passed from parents

to offspring. From an article in the world journal of diabetes 2013 it states, “Type 2

diabetes (T2D) is the result of interaction between environmental factors and a strong

hereditary component.’’ I find that statement to be interesting because to my knowledge

neither of my grandparents on my mother or fathers side have Type II diabetes.

Type II Diabetes: Genetic Linkage 4

Learning that Type II diabetes is considered hereditary I began to think that more

than likely this is passed down to children. With both parents having Type II diabetes, I

felt that it was more likely that I would at some point in my life develop the disease as

well. According to an article written in the world journal of diabetes it states, “The

lifetime risk of developing T2D is 40% for individuals who have one parent with T2D

and 70% if both parents are affected.” Therefore, the odds of me at some point in my

life having type II diabetes is very likely. The main factor in that conclusion would be

due to not one parent having diabetes but both parents.

We know that Type II diabetes is hereditary, so basically in a sense this shows that this is

genetically linked. Even with this information we can assume that there is not enough

information to scientifically show that this disease is genetically linked. In an article published in

PubMed 2002 it clearly states that “The methods of genetic dissection based on linkage, allele

sharing, and linkage disequilibrium may lack the statistical power to detect weak associations in

heterogeneous populations.” We have statistics and probability, but we do not have enough

information to state that children are genetically predisposed to Diabetes just because their

parents have them. In the world journal of diabetes 2013 it is stated “This familial clustering of

T2DM risk found in various family studies is not entirely due to genetic factors.”
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Reflection

My reasoning for choosing to write about type II diabetes and genetic linkage would have to be

because both my parents suffer from this. I wanted to know if certain diseases could be passed

down from parents to their offspring. Recently my father has been diagnosed with stage 4 liver

cancer. I know that there is not a lot of information on whether cancer is hereditary, so I focused

on a disease that has more information regarding it. This has been weighing heavy on heart and I

wanted to know if I was predisposed to developing diabetes from both of my parents. I learned

that it is likely that I will develop diabetes just from that fact that both of my parents have

diabetes. I now wonder if I will pass diabetes on to my own children. I now constantly wonder if

somewhere down the line I will get cancer. Are my genetics more susceptible to cancer? Will I

give these genetics to my children? It is all unknown and that is so very scary to me.
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References

genetics of type 2 diabetes. (2013, August 15). NCBI.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3746083/

Bastian, W. (2002, April 15). Genes with linkage or association with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12017219/

Reece, J. B., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P., & Jackson, R. B. (2019).

Campbell Biology (10th Edition) (10th ed.). Pearson.

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