Sex-linked monohybrid Crosses

Sex Linked Problem 1

In fruit flies, red eye color is dominant over white
eye color. Cross a homozygous red eyed female
with a white eyed male. What are the percent
phenotypes for the daughters and sons?

Red eyes = R Phenotypes:

White eyes = r Xr Y Daughters
100% red eyes
XRXR x XrY XR XRXr XRY
Sons
XR XRXr XRY 100% red eyes
2. In fruit flies, white eyes (r) is the result of a recessive,
sex-linked gene. Red eyes (R) is a normal and dominant
trait. In a cross between a white-eyed female and a red-
eyed male, what percent of the female offspring will have
white eyes? Show your work.

Xr Xr
100% red eyed female(2/4, 50%)
XR XR Xr XR Xr 100% white eyed male(50%)

Answer: 0% white
Y Xr Y Xr Y eyed female
 Question 3
• Show the cross of a red eyed female (heterozygous) and a red eyed male.
What are the genotypes of the parents? _________ & ____________
• How many are:
1. white eyed, male ____
2. white eyed, female ____
3. red eyed, male ____
4. red eyed, female ____
• Math: What if in the above cross, 100 males were produced and 200 females.
How many total red-eyed flies would there be? ________

XR Xr 50% red eyed female(100%

2/2)
25% white eyed male
XR XR XR XR Xr 0% white eyed female
25% red eyed male

Math: 250. (Half

Y XR Y Xr Y the males + all of
The females
Human sex linkage
 Human sex linkage
TO DO genetic crosses of genetic disorders, we
need to know genotypes and phenotypes!
Phenotype Genotype
H=healthy
Healthy female XHXH h=sick

Carrier female XHXh

Sick female XhXh What are carriers?

-carries a copy of the
Healthy boy XHY Recessive allele
Do you see any male
Sick boy XhY carriers?
Check your understanding!
 GP 1 Haemophilia

Blood clotting disorder.

Caused by a recessive X-linked allele.

More common in males than females.

If H = normal allele for blood clotting, and h = allele for

haemophilia, to what phenotypes do the following
phenotypes correspond?
Female normal Female carrier
XHXH = …………………………… XHXh = ……………………………
Female affected
XhXh = …………………………… Male normal
XHY = ……………………………
XhY = ………………………………
Male affected
GP 2

Q: What are the genotypes for the following people?

• Female carrier:
• Male affected:
• Female Normal:
• Male normal:
• Female affected:
 Answers

GP 2: What are the genotypes for the following

people?

• Female carrier : XHXh

• Male affected: XhY
• Female Normal: XHXH
• Male normal: XHY
• Female affected: XhXh
 Some other rules

When asking about daughter or son :

If possible, put a tick and if not put an X in the
appropriate box
Parent genotypes Possible to have a daughter Possible to have a son who
who is a haemophiliac is a haemophiliac

XHXH x XHY
XHXH x XhY
XH X h x X H Y
XHXh x XhY
XhXh x XHY
XhXh x XhY
GP-3
Jen is a healthy carrier of hemophilia and Adam has
no history in his family .
What is the probability of:

a. Daughter with hemophilia?

Healthy girl Healthy boy
0%
b. Carrier child?
Healthy girl Hemophilia 25% carrier/ ¼
(carrier) c boy
c. Child with hemophilia?
25% hemophiliac ¼
d. Healthy children?
75% (Two girls and one boy)
¾ healthy
 GP-3

Red-green color blindness is caused by a X-linked

recessive allele. A color-blind man marries a woman with
normal vision who is a carrier.
What is the probability that they will have a color-blind
daughter? A son?
Red-green color blindness is caused by a X-linked
recessive allele.
A color-blind man marries a woman with normal vision
who is a carrier. What is the probability that they will
have a color-blind daughter? A son?

XH Xh

XH Xh Xh Xh
Xh 50% daughter/ ½
XH Y Xh Y
50% son / ½ son
Y
Genetic Problems cont.….
 GP-4

Hemophilia is a sex linked disorder. Kelly does not have hemophilia even
though her mother did. Jim (Kelly’s husband) is a hemophiliac. Their first child
Barry is healthy but their other child Rachel is a hemophiliac. Draw a Punnett
square for Jim and Kelly and explain the inheritance.
What is the
probability of
1) Examine Kelly and Jim’s Punnett square. getting a:
What are the chances they would have
three children, all of whom are healthy? a. Healthy son?
25%
b. Healthy
daughter?
25%
c. Child with
Healthy girl Healthy hemophilia?
(carrier) boy
50%
Hemophilia Hemophilia d. Carrier child?
c girl c boy 25%
 GP -5
CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING
1. Which of the following pairs of parents is most likely to produce a daughter with
hemophilia? Choose 1 answer:
 GP-6
Practice Question: Sex-Linked Traits

Hemophilia, a blood disease in which the blood does not clot,

is a sex-linked trait. the recessive trait for hemophilia is located
on X chromosomes.

Could an affected male and a carrier female produce

hemophilic children? If so, what sex would they be?

a. Yes; male only

b. Yes; female only
c. Yes; male and female
d. No
 Practice Question: Sex-Linked Traits

Hemophilia, a blood disease in which the blood does not clot,

is a sex-linked trait. the recessive trait for hemophilia is located
8
on X chromosomes.

Could an affected male and a carrier female produce

hemophilic children? If so, what sex would they be?

a. Yes; male only

b. Yes; female only
c. Yes; male and female
d. No
 GP-7

Practice Problem
The Punnett square below shows how muscular dystrophy, a sex-linked recessive disorder, is
inherited. Muscular dystrophy weakens muscles that help the body move. It occurs over time,
so muscles become weaker as the person ages.

Father
Key (no MD)
XM= healthy allele XM Y 1. What is the probability that a daughter
Xm= muscular
dystrophy allele
of these parents will have muscular
dystrophy?
XM
1. What is the probability that a son of
these parents will have muscular
dystrophy?
XMXm
3. What is the probability that a daughter
Mother of these parents will be a carrier of the
(carrier) Xm disease?

© Strankles Science
 1. What is the probability that a daughter
of these parents will have muscular
dystrophy? 0%

Answer 1. What is the probability that a son of

these parents will have muscular
dystrophy? 50%

3. What is the probability that a daughter

of these parents will be a carrier of the
disease? 50%

© Strankles Science
The gene for colorblindness is carried on the X
chromosome and is recessive. A man, whose
father was colorblind, has a colorblind daughter. Practice
1. Is this man colorblind? How do you know? Problem

2. Where did the man get his allele for

colorblindness?

3. Must the fathers of all colorblind girls be

colorblind? Explain.
The gene for colorblindness is carried on the X
chromosome and is recessive. A man, whose
father was colorblind, has a colorblind daughter. Practice
1. Is this man colorblind? How do you know? Problem
Yes. The colorblind daughter had to get one allele for
colorblindness from each parent. This would require
her father to be colorblind.

2. Where did the man get his allele for

colorblindness?
A man gets his allele for colorblindness
from his mother. He gets his Y
chromosome from his father.

3. Must the fathers of all colorblind girls be

colorblind? Explain.
Yes. For a girl to be colorblind, she must
inherit the colorblind allele from each
parent.
 Sex-Linked Traits-Summary
• Sex-linked traits can be Dominant or Recessive.

• H = dominant h = recessive

• What would be the genotypes of a male and female that have a Sex-linked
Dominant trait and do not express (have) the trait?
• Expresses Trait: Male - XH Y Female - XH XH or XH Xh
• No Expression: Male - Xh Y Female - Xh Xh
• What would be the genotypes of a male and female that have a Sex-linked
Recessive trait and do not express the trait?
• Expresses Trait: Male - Xh Y Female - Xh Xh
• No Expression: Male - XH Y Female - XH XH or XH Xh
(Carrier)

• Most Sex-linked traits are Recessive!

X-Linked Genetics in the
Calico Cat
Calico Cats
 X-Linked Genetics in the
Calico Cat-Codominance
• Cats have a gene on the X chromosome that
has two alleles—one that makes the cat black
(XB) and one that makes it orange (XO).
• If the cat has both alleles, it will express both
colors! Cats with both black and orange are
called “tortoiseshell”/ “Calico “
 X-Linked Genetics in the
Calico Cat
• Calico is a coat color found in cats, which is
caused by a SEX-LINKED, CODOMINANT allele.

• If a female cat inherits a black allele

and a ginger allele/Orange allele she
will be tortoiseshell (XBXR) ((XBXG)

• All tortoiseshell/Calico cats are females

 Extended: [a domestic cat with markings
resembling tortoiseshell.]
Tortoiseshell cats/Calico cats

If a female cat inherits a black

allele and a ginger allele she will
be tortoiseshell (XBXG)

A male cat can only inherit one of

these alleles so he will be either
black or ginger. (XBY or XGY)
 X-Linked Genetics in the
Calico Cat
Phenotypes Genotypes
Orange female:
Orange male:
Black female:
Black male:
Tortoiseshell female:
Tortoiseshell male:
 X-Linked Genetics in the
Calico Cat
Phenotypes Genotypes
Orange female: XO XO
Orange male: XO Y
Black female: XB XB
Black male: XBY
Tortoiseshell female: XO XB
Tortoiseshell male: (No)
 Female Genotypes
There are three possible female
genotypes for this locus:
 Male Genotypes
There are two possible (normal) male genotypes:
Calico genetics
 Questions

3
 Answers
1. Father must be XbY because it would be the only way to get any yellow female.
XBXb x Xb Y
XbXb = Yellow

2. Male cat must be yellow in order to get calico cats in offspring as the trait
expresses codominance.
XBXB x Xb Y

3. The yellow cat must be male, as the father cat must be black in order to have
calico offspring.
 Examples of Sex-Linked Recessive Disorders

• Red/Green Colorblindness – Difficulty perceiving differences between

colors (red or green, blue or yellow).
• Hemophilia – Absence of one or more proteins necessary for normal
blood clotting.
• Deafness
• Cataracts – opacity in the lens that can lead to blindness
• Night blindness – (Nyctalopia) rods do not work so that can not see in the
dark
• Glaucoma – pressure in the eye that can lead to optic nerve damage and
blindness
• Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – progressive weakness and degeneration
of skeletal muscles that control .Mainly in boys, onset 3-5 yrs, by 12 years
can’t walk, and later needs respirator.
Recognising a sex-linked trait

 Usually, more males than females are affected.

 If a woman has the trait, all her sons have it.

 The characteristic often appears to skip a generation

from grandfather to grandson.

 For a female to be affected her father must have the

characteristic and her mother must at least be a
carrier.
• Genes inherited by both male and
female but expressed only in one sex
due to SEX HORMONES

– EX: Beard growth, breasts and milk

production in mammals, antlers,
feathers/plumage on bird, lion’s
mane, Genitalia anatomy/ function
(ovaries, testes)
 E.g. a bull may carry genes for high
milk production, but he will not give
milk. He would be a good sire[bull
kept for breeding] for a dairy herd.