2025 – PAGE 253 – GENETICS & INHERITED DISEASES
FOR THIS AUTOSOMAL DOMINANT MNEMONIC, PLEASE EMPHASIZE THE CAPITALIZED WORDS TO YOURSELF AS YOU GO! IT’S A LONG MNEMONIC, BUT IT’S INVALUABLE ON THE EXAM!
Imagine a WAR between two tribes separated by a DAM OF MINTS (the mints are white and shaped like the MOON). The first tribe’s name is MANNTRA, and the second tribesman call themselves the WHITE HAIRS. You decide to learn more about the WHITE HAIRS. They live on an APE-alachian PEAR-shaped mountain in eastern North America, and are led by three unique generals. The first is a black man named A-KON, who is very short and a mini-me version of the similarly named singer/rapper named AKON. He walks around bobbing his head and singing his mantra, “Down with the MANNTRA!” The second general is a white man with prominent lips named Mick JAGGER. The last general is a Mexican GARDNER with EXTRA TEETH. So, that’s one black man who looks like a mini-me version of a famous rapper, one white person who looks like a prominent-lipped rock star (Mick Jagger), and one Mexican person with extra teeth. The WHITE HAIRS and the three generals go HUNTING for a weak spot in their enemy’s DAM OF MOON-SHAPED MINTS. Their HUNTING weapon of choice is a TUBULAR bazooka that BLASTS out ASHY LEAVES that have small DANCING TICKS on them. As you can imagine, they probably are not going to win this WAR.
- AKON (Rapper): www.pbrlinks.com/AUTOSOMAL1
- A-KON (General) – www.pbrlinks.com/AUTOSOMAL2
- Mick JAGGER (General): www.pbrlinks.com/AUTOSOMAL3
- Mexican GARDNER: www.pbrlinks.com/AUTOSOMAL4
- The mnemonic above is designed to help you very quickly remember the names of the highest-yield AUTOSOMAL DOMINANT disorders. Please go over the story several times until you feel you have memorized it. This WILL save you tons of time and WILL be worth many points on the exam! Before going over the mnemonic again, please review the key below:
- DAM OF MINTS: Represents DOMINANT
- WAR: Represents WAARdenburg Syndrome. Patients have a forelock of WHITE HAIR.
- APE-alachian PEAR-shaped mountains: Represent APErt syndrome, in which the child’s head may look somewhat like a pear.
- MANNTRA: Represents another mnemonic, which reinforces some of the already mentioned autosomal dominant disorders and also brings forth three more (Marfan, Noonan and Nail-patella).
- M represents Marfan syndrome.
- A and APE-alachian represent APErt syndrome.
- N represents Nail-patella syndrome.
- N and the “moon-shaped mints” represent Noonan syndrome.
- T and TUBULAR both represent TUBEROUS SCLEROSIS. Also, the ASHY LEAVES are meant to remind you of the associated Ash Leaf spots, and the DANCING TICKS are meant to remind you of hypsarrhythmia (infantile spasms associated with tuberous sclerosis).
- R and BLAST represent RetinoBLASToma.
- A and A-KON both represent ACHON If you don’t know the rapper, please substitute with an African American Munchkin from The Wizard of Oz.
- Mick JAGGER = Peutz-Jegher syndrome
- GARDENER = Gardner syndrome (patients have extra teeth)
- HUNTING = HUNTINGTON’S disease (AKA Huntington disease), NOT Hunter syndrome. Hunter syndrome is X-linked. Consider associating this mnemonic with HUNTING at the most DOMINANT online bank around, using ING because the HUNTER mnemonic also has to do with someone who hunts.