Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
Red-green colour blindness is a sex-linked recessive disorder caused by a gene on the X chromosome. A woman with normal vision, whose father was colour blind, marries a colour-blind man.
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Genotypes. The woman has normal vision, but her father passed her his , so she is a carrier, . The man is .
(a) Daughters. Every daughter gets from her father. From her mother she gets or , each with a chance of . So of the daughters are , colour blind.
(b) Sons. A son gets the Y from his father and one of his mother's X chromosomes, so of the sons are , colour blind. This is the son of a carrier woman having a per cent chance of being colour blind.
(c) A colour-blind daughter first. The chance of a daughter is , and of her being colour blind : .
(d) A normal daughter. She has the father's , so to have normal vision she must have the mother's : she is , a carrier, with a chance of .
(e) Two normal sons. Each son has normal vision with a chance of : .
Answer: (a) . (b) . (c) . (d) . (e) .
Check. List the four equally likely children: (normal daughter), (colour-blind daughter), (normal son) and (colour-blind son). Each answer can be read from this list.
Watch out. A colour-blind daughter is possible here only because her mother is a carrier and her father is colour blind. With a father of normal vision, no daughter would be colour blind.
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