Karyotyping can be used as a prenatal screening tool. If a karyotype was prepared from the cells of an unborn baby, would he/she be guaranteed to be free from ALL and ANY genetic disorders if the chromosome number and configuration appeared normal?

Question

Karyotyping can be used as a prenatal screening tool.  If a karyotype was prepared from the cells of an unborn baby, would he/she be guaranteed to be free from ALL and ANY genetic disorders if the chromosome number and configuration appeared normal?

aaronq · Answer

no, affected genes could be present regardless of the chromosome number or shape

cathyangs · Answer

^ I agree with aaronq, but to expand on what they're saying - there are genetic disorders that are not visible in prototypes. For example, disorders can be caused by mutations that change individual bases in DNA code, which is not visible on the large scale of a karyotype.