In humans, why are females much less likely to inherit color blindness?
Group of answer choices
1. Males and females inherit traits from their grandparents differently.
2. Females are color blind if they carry the gene, no matter where it is located.
3. Males only use half of their genetic material to express their phenotype.
4. Females must have both alleles recessive to be color blind.
4. Females must have both alleles recessive to be color blind.
The correct answer is:
4. Females must have both alleles recessive to be color blind.
Color blindness is a recessive trait that is carried on the X chromosome. In humans, males have one X and one Y chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. Since color blindness is a recessive trait, females must have two copies of the recessive allele to be color blind. In most cases, if a female only carries the recessive allele on one of her X chromosomes, she will still have a normal color vision due to the dominant allele on her other X chromosome. However, males who inherit the recessive allele on their sole X chromosome will be color blind, as they do not have a second X chromosome to carry a dominant allele to compensate for the recessive allele.