Heterozygous advantage

Introduction

A heterozygous advantage is where carrying just one autosomal recessive mutant allele could provide a selective advantage to the individual, by providing protection from a disease, for example. This can explain why alleles which are lethal or deletarious in the homozygous form persist .

Examples

For examples see:

• Sickle Cell anaemia 
• Cystic fibrosis Sickle_cell_anaemia