Transcript BLUE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY - Hudson City Schools / Homepage

BLUE PEOPLE OF
KENTUCKY
We’re not talking about...
• The smurfs
• Clinically depressed
people
• Fans of B.B. King
• Avatar inhabitants
Not Kentucky Fans
WHO ARE THEY?
The "Blue People"
are descendents
of Martin Fugate,
who suffered from
a recessive gene
which limits or
stops
the production of
the enzyme
diaphorase.
• The lack of this enzyme gives
people a blueish cast to their
skin rather than pink.
• Few people still have this gene.
Fugate Family
Father + 4 children are blue
Luna Fugate and John Stacey
• Lorenzo Dow
Fugate and
Eleanor
Fugate.
Lorenzo Dow
was also
know as
"Blue Anze"
Of Lonesome Creek, Kentucky
In Hazard, the County Seat
What makes them blue?
• Methemoglobinemia
• Red blood cells (RBC) from blue people are
deficient in NADH diaphorase activity and
cannot reduce the oxidized iron in
methemoglobin (metHb).
Symptoms
•
•
•
•
•
Blue colored skin
Headaches
Fatigue
Coma
Death
NOT THIS GUY!
• Paul Karason
• a bad case of dermatitis, which results in
swollen, reddened and itchy skin. He started
self-medicating, using a treatment called
colloidal silver
Can you pick out the blue
relative?
Blue Lips
Degree of Blueness
• RBC from the parents of blue people
(obligate heterozygotes for the blue
trait - Bb) do contain some NADH
diaphorase activity but not as much as
homozygotes (BB) for the normal
allele.
Let’s make a Pedigree
• What’s that?
• A Family Tree
• a chart representing family relationships
in a form resembling a tree. As normally
presented these trees "grow" down from
the top, from the oldest generations at the
top to the newer generations at the
bottom.
Pedigree Symbols
More
Pedigree
Symbols
Blue Pedigree of Fugates
•
= male with it
• = female
with it
Pedigree of Fugates
•Can you
work out
the
genotypes?
Pedigree with Genotypes
•
•
trait visible
carrier
Treatment
• The homozygous patient
(bb)
• daily ingestion of
ascorbic acid to
increase non- enzymatic
reduction of
methemoglobin
• or the use of methylene
blue.
You Will Make a Pedigree of Your
Own Family
GET
INSTRUCTION
SHEET
Choose a trait
from the lab of
Inheriting
Human Traits
(the one you drew
the face on)
Pedigree Animation
• Media Showcase: Pedigree