sex linked genes

12.1 Chromosomal Inheritance

Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance: simply states that chromosomes are carriers of genetic information (Walter Sutton)

Every organism has sex chromosomes (that determine sex) and the rest of the chromosomes are called autosomes

Humans have 22 pairs of autosomes, 1 pair of sex chromosomes (see karyotype)
Fruit flies have 3 pairs of autosomes, 1 pair of sex chromosomes

Sex Linked Genes

Some genes are located on the X chromosome. Females receive two alleles for these genes, but males only receive one.
When doing a punnet square, use large X's and Y's to denote male and female, use superscript letters to designate the alleles
If you are trying to determine if an allele is sex-linked, and which is dominant, a reciprocal cross is performed

White eyed male x red eyed female | Red eyed male x white eyed female

X^rY x X^RX^R | X^RY x X^rX^r

Human X-Linked Disorders

Colorblindness

Red-green colorblindness makes it difficult for the person to discern the two colors (test yourself!)
If the parent is a male, the genotype is automatically known. A colorblind male has to be b, since he only has one allele and colorblindness is recessive. A normal male must then be B
Females can be heterozygous for the colorblindness trait - they are called carriers. A female can be BB - normal, Bb - carrier, or bb - colorblind
The following shows a cross between a normal man and a woman who is a carrier.

Muscular Dystrophy

characterized by the wasting away of muscles
life expectancy: ~20 yrs
females can be carriers for the disease, where they pass the disease to their sons only

Hemophilia

also known as "bleeder's disease"
blood does not clot properly
disease was present in the royal family, starting with Queen Victoria

Fragile X Syndrome

caused by triplet repeats in a gene on the X chromosome
causes mental retardation
named because the X chromosome had an odd appearance - the tip of the chromosome seemed to be attached only by a small thread
the number of repeats of the gene determines the severity of the disease

Problems:
1. What is the chance that a woman with hemophilia will have a child with hemophilia? (What sex would the child need to be?)

2. In a cross where a brown-haired female is crossed with a black-haired male, all the male offspring have brown hair and all the female offspring have black hair. What must be the genotypes of the parents? Which allele is dominant?

3. In drosophila (fruit fly), the allele for eye color is located on the X chromosome, where red eyes is dominant to white eyes. Show the cross of a heterozygous red-eyed female and a white eyed male.

4. A man who is colorblind marries a woman whose father is colorblind. What is the chance that they will have colorblind children?