LESSON EXEMPLAR

Grade Level: Nine

Grading Period: First Grading

Learning Competencies:

• Define sex linkage.

• Describe the inheritance of colour blindness and hemophilia as examples of sex linkage.

• State that a human female can be homozygous or heterozygous with respect to sex-linked
genes.

• Explain that female carriers are heterozygous for X-linked recessive alleles.

• Predict the genotypic and phenotypic ratios of offspring of monohybrid crosses involving
any of the above patterns of inheritance.

• Explain how the sex chromosomes control gender by referring to the inheritance of X and
Y chromosomes in humans.

Topic: Sex Linked Traits

Activity

Ishihara Color Vision Test – Color Vision Testing

You have 3 seconds to identify the number on each of the plates.

What number do you see on the Demonstration Plate

D

DISCUSSIONS (POWERPOINT PRESENTATION)

Genes are inherited from our biological parents in specific ways. One of the basic patterns of
inheritance of our genes is called X-linked inheritance.

Men normally have an X and a Y combination of sex chromosomes, while women have two X's. 
Since only men inherit Y chromosomes, they are the only ones to inherit Y-linked traits.  Men and
women can get the X-linked ones since both inherit X chromosomes.

What is X-linked inheritance?

X-linked inheritance means that the gene causing the trait or the disorder is located on the X
chromosome.

A recessive gene that is located on the X chromosome produces a sex-linked trait because a

recessive trait will preferentially be found in males compared to females.

A classic example of a sex-linked trait is color blindness. The color blindness gene is located on the
X chromosome, so men are more likely to be color blind than women.

Red-green color blindness

Red-green color blindness simply means that a person cannot distinguish shades of red and green.
People with normal colour vision have all three types of cone/pathway working correctly but
colour blindness occurs when one or more of the cone types are faulty. For example, if the red
cone is faulty you won’t be able to see colours containing red clearly. Most people with colour
blindness can’t distinguish certain shades of red and green
 1.

Questions

1. What are the chances that their son is colorblind?

2. What are the chances that their daughters will be colorblind? Carriers?

3. Can they have a normal vision child?

2. A woman is colorblind. What are the chances that her sons will be colorblind? If she is married
to a man with normal vision, what are the chances that her daughters will be colorblind? will be
carriers?

3.
4. Suppose an XCXc female marries an XcY man. (a) What is the probability of producing a colorblind
son? (b) What is the probability of producing a colorblind daughter? (c) What is the probability of
producing a daughter who is a carrier for the colorblind gene

ASSESSMENT

1. Two normal people have a colorblind son. What are the genotypes of the parents?
What are the genotypes and phenotypes possible among their other children?

2. A couple has a colorblind daughter. What are the possible genotypes and phenotypes
of the parents and the daughter?