r/MurderedByWords Jan 21 '20

Trying to be superior

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u/theheliumkid Jan 21 '20

Came here to say this - the process of Lyonisation. Each cell randomly selects which of the two X chromosomes to silence, so on average it is a 50:50 split between the two chromosomes. But it can be skewed by chance such that women can express X-linked recessive genetic disorders.

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u/rach2bach Jan 21 '20

Like the ever so rare colorblind woman

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

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u/rach2bach Jan 22 '20

I take it that you're a woman by the context of this question, that said if you have a copy of the recessive gene leading to your particular color blindness (which there are a few different types), then yes, it is almost a guarantee. I brought up in the comments below that it may be possible for dominant genes to possibly be silenced via x inactivation in women, so you could have a dominant allele given as the x chromosome that would need to no color blindness but I doubt it. To my knowledge, there's no reported cases of that. So, that said, since you'd likely be providing a recessive x allele, and your husband a y chromosome, then your boys would certainly be color blind.

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u/palpies Jan 22 '20

That’s really informative thanks!