genetics

[victor steinbok]

Actually, the way you describe it, it would have to be recessive,
e.g., hemophilia. The idea is that because women have a pair of X
chromosomes, one would carry the dominant gene that blocks the
disorder--more precisely, in such cases, this gene is functioning
normally in producing a particular set of proteins--while the damaged
gene does not produce the proteins. Then, if the damaged gene is
inherited by male offspring, there is no corresponding normal gene in
the Y chromosome to offset the damage caused by the defective one from
the lone X. This is why sometimes women DO end up expressing syndromes
usually associated with men (colorblindness, hemophilia, baldness).

To be honest, I've seen a lot of conflicting information concerning
heredity of baldness, so I am not even sure if this claim carries any
weight. But it still makes a good (peripheral) story.

VS-)

On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 4:54 PM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:

> It would have to be carried on the X, or a woman wouldn't have it.
> Presumably it is dominant, or there would need to be two, one from
> each parent.  The mechanism may be more complicated, controlled by
> more than one pair of genes.  I'm no geneticist, just parroting stuff
> I read somewhere,  confirmed by my biologist husband.
> AM

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