Romanov Assignment

John Paul Cross

Janet Rinehart-Kim, BIOL294

4/25/2022

History:

1. The Romanov dynasty lasted for three centuries from the 17^th century to the 20^th century.
2. In 1917 Nicholas II and his family were usurped by the Bolshevik party.
3. In 1917 Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolshevik party.
4. The “White” Russian army were imperial sympathizers who actively opposed the “Red” Bolshevik party and their goals.

Hemophilia:

• Queen Victoria was Alix’ Grandmother.
• Hemophilia is an X-linked recessive gene.
• If one is a carrier for a disease, that means that it must be recessive, and that they only carry one copy of the disease, meaning that they are not afflicted with it and its effects but can pass the gene down to their offspring.
• Males are not considered carriers for the disease as they only possess one copy of the X chromosome inherited from their mother, meaning that they will have no other gene to offset the recessive hemophilia gene which results in full expression.
• Hemophilia is caused by insufficient clotting protein production due to a mutation on the X chromosome, leading to extended clotting times compared to those without the disease.
• The royal family was likely afflicted with type B.
• According to the pubmed article provided, Alexis’ genes were likely to be altered by “a causal substitution in the splice acceptor site of exon 4 in the F9 gene.”
• Hemophilia B is typically caused by mass deletions in the genome or nonsense mutations resulting in sections of the genome that would normally code for proper protein production being entirely excised.

1. The reason only Males have Hemophilia is due to it being an X-linked recessive disease, and with a carrier female breeding with a non-afflicted male, no females will be afflicted leaving only half of all males as afflicted individuals.
2. Females can inherit Hemophilia, however they must inherit a recessive mutation from a carrier or afflicted mother AND from an afflicted father, therefore females are far less likely to be afflicted with the disease compared to males.
3. Seeing as Rasputin could not have healed the Romanov family’s genetic defect through any means available at the time, his authority and validity would have been called into question, and by extension the family’s. By proving the weakness of the dynasty through Rasputin’s failures to heal them, the proletariat could have been roused and made to revolt.

Mass Grave Molecular Analysis

1. Nine bodies were found in a grave discovered in June 1991.
2. Bone samples were taken from the corpses and compared to blood samples from living relatives as well as tissue and hair samples taken from Anna Anderson Manahan which were all subjected to short tandem repeat analysis to determine sex and relation.
3. Phillip is related to Elizabeth through women who would preserve her mitochondrial sequences, while Elizabeth is only related via men, and as such his mitochondrial DNA will be more directly connected to Queen Victoria’s.
4. Anastasia was the only female who could have survived, and as such was not in the mass grave.
5. Depending upon the inheritance pattern, whether direct lineage is based off of female or male ancestors, the mitochondrial DNA will be directly connected for female ancestors, or not such as in male ancestors.
6. Nicholas was directly related to royalty.
7. Nicolas’ DNA contained direct connections to Queen Victoria via his mitochondrial DNA.
8. Mitochondrial, Rectal Tissue and Bone DNA were all used.
9. Alexis would have had his mother Alix’s mitochondrial DNA proving direct connection.
10. Anastasia was not in the grave where Alexis was found.

Who wants to be Anastasia?

• Anna Anderson was formally known as Franziska Schanzkowska. She was a polish factory worker who was seriously injured in a factory incident. She had a history of admittances to several mental hospitals.
• She moved to Charlottesville in the USA.
• Anderson’s samples came from her hair and bowel tissue samples stored in wax.
• Nicholas’ and Alix’ DNA came from their bones found in tombs.
• Both DNA sequences were subjected to short tandem repeat analysis and amelogenin tests.
• Anderson’s DNA was compared to Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alix.
• Anderson’s mtDNA was related to Carl Maucher.
• Anderson was confirmed to not be Anastasia.
• The last members were discovered in 2007.
• I was shocked one royal family could generate this much interest in genetics, though I am happy for the good press it provided for the field.

Works Cited

Genome.gov. 2022. Hemophilia. [online] Available at: <https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/hemophilia> [Accessed 25 April 2022].

CDC.gov. 2022. What is Hemophilia? [online] Available at: <https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hemophilia/facts.html> [Accessed 25 April 2022].

HealthResearchFunding.org. 2022. Difference between Hemophilia A and B. [online] Available at: <https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hemophilia/facts.html> [Accessed 25 April 2022].

Goodeve A. C. (2015). Hemophilia B: molecular pathogenesis and mutation analysis. Journal of thrombosis and haemostasis: JTH, 13(7), 1184–1195. https://doi.org/10.1111/jth.12958

Dnainthenews.com. 2022. Was Anna Anderson the Last Remaining Romanov?  [online] Available at: <https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hemophilia/facts.html> [Accessed 25 April 2022].