The condition marfan syndrome results from the production of abnormal elastin, the main protein component of elastic fibers. predict the potential consequences of defective elastic fibers. (hint: consider the organs and tissues in which elastic fibers are found). how would defective elastic fibers impair the functions of these organs and tissues? (

Elastic fibers are made of elastin and microfibrils, that are elastic protein structures. The proteins can be stretched and resume normal shape. These fibers are found in parts of the body such as arteries, skin, lungs, connective tissue and heart that require some stretching. Marfan syndrome affects the elastic connective tissues causing symptoms like dilation of the aorta that doesn't resume normal lumen diameter (aortic aneurysm), and curving of the spine (scoliosis).

The lungs are unable to stretch and resume shape normally and this affects the respiratory system. The subjects will suffer from shortness of breath, wheezing and chest pain.

The sheath/endoneurium of neurons is connective tissue. This part of a neuron allows signals to travel effeciently along the axon of the neuron. This means that a person with Mafran syndrome has a slower response to stimuli that ordinary persons.

The terms chromosome and gene were used long before biologists really understood what these structures were. When the Austrian monk and biologist Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) developed the basic ideas of heredity, he assumed that genetic traits were somehow transmitted from parents to offspring in some kind of tiny "package." That package was later given the name "gene." When the term was first suggested, no one had any idea as to what a gene might look like. The term was used simply to convey the idea that traits are transmitted from one generation to the next in certain discrete units.

Magnification of chromosome 17, which carries the breast and ovarian cancer gene. (Reproduced by permission ofCustom Medical Stock Photo, Inc.)

The term "chromosome" was first suggested in 1888 by the German anatomist Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz (1836–1921). Waldeyer-Hartz used the term to describe certain structures that form during the process of cell division (reproduction).

One of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of biology occurred in 1953 when American biologist James Watson (1928– ) and English chemist Francis Crick (1916– ) discovered the chemical structure of a class of compounds known as deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA). The Watson and Crick discovery made it possible to express biological concepts (such as the gene) and structures (such as the chromosome) in concrete chemical terms.

Read more: http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ca-Ch/Chromosome.html#ixzz57wQgdEzZ