A woman who is a carrier for an X-linked recessive disease has a child with a healthy male partner. What is the chance that she will have an affected son?
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: 50%
A carrier mother has a 50% chance of passing the mutant X allele. Sons who inherit the allele will be affected because they have only one X chromosome.
Keep practicing
More Mendelian inheritance questions
- A child expresses a phenotype that neither parent shows, but both parents are carriers. Which inheritance pattern best explains this?
- A mitochondrial disorder is suspected in a family. Which of the following inheritance patterns is expected?
- A trait shows vertical transmission across generations, and every affected individual has at least one affected parent. Which inheritance p…
- If a homozygous recessive individual mates with a heterozygous carrier, what percentage of their offspring are expected to be affected?
- A father is affected with an autosomal dominant disorder. The mother is unaffected and does not carry the mutation. What is the chance thei…
- A disorder is passed from affected mothers to all children, but affected fathers do not transmit it to any offspring. This pattern most str…