234k views
5 votes
Can a human male be a carrier of red-green color blindness based on the type of inheritance associated with color blindness?

a) Yes, because color blindness is a dominant trait.
b) No, because color blindness is a recessive trait.

1 Answer

2 votes

Final answer:

A human male cannot be a carrier of red-green color blindness because it is an X-linked recessive trait and males have only one X chromosome. If they inherit the colorblindness allele, they will be colorblind; they cannot be silent carriers.

Step-by-step explanation:

Can a human male be a carrier of red-green color blindness? The answer is no, because red-green color blindness is an X-linked recessive trait. In the context of genetic inheritance, being a 'carrier' typically refers to someone who has one copy of a recessive allele but does not express the trait because they also have a dominant allele that masks it. This is relevant in cases where the trait is autosomal. However, with sex-linked traits such as color blindness, the situation differs.

Boys have only one X chromosome, which means that if their single X chromosome carries the gene for colorblindness, they will exhibit the condition. They cannot be carriers in the typical sense because they do not have another X chromosome with a potentially dominant allele to mask the expression of the trait. Girls, on the other hand, carry two X chromosomes, so a girl could be a carrier of color blindness if one of her X chromosomes has the colorblind gene while the other has a normal vision gene.

User Jorje
by
7.9k points

No related questions found

Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.

9.4m questions

12.2m answers

Categories