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A woman is a carrier for an X-linked recessive disease. Assume non-disjunction of the X chromosomes occurs during meiosis I but meiosis II is normal. She has a son that is ten years old. Which of the following best describes him?

a) Affected male
b) Carrier male
c) Normal male
d) Unaffected male
e) Male with one Barr body

User Smerlin
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

A carrier woman's son would either be an affected male or a normal male with a 50 percent chance of being affected by an X-linked recessive disease. The son cannot be a carrier, an unaffected male, or have a Barr body since males have a single X chromosome and cannot be carriers of X-linked disorders.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question concerns a woman with an X-linked recessive disease who is a carrier and the potential genetic outcome for her ten-year-old son. X-linked recessive diseases in males manifest when they inherit a single recessive allele from their mother because males only have one X chromosome. Therefore, a male cannot be a carrier of an X-linked recessive disorder; he is either affected or unaffected. In the case of non-disjunction during meiosis I leading to a son, the probabilities remain the same as with a typical meiosis process. A son of a carrier mother has a 50 percent chance of being affected.

Given the provided information, the best description of the woman's son would be either affected male (if he inherited the recessive allele) or normal male (if he inherited a normal allele). The phenotype of the woman's son is not given, so it is not possible to choose between affected or normal male without that information. However, he would not be a carrier (since males cannot be carriers of X-linked disorders), an unaffected male (since this term is not precise), or a male with one Barr body (which would not be applicable here as typically only females have a Barr body, indicative of an inactive X chromosome).

User Hamidreza Vakilian
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