Why are there more colour blind boys than girls?

Answer 1

Color blindness is a genetic trait passed from one generation to another. It is carried on the X chromosome and males have an XY chromosome where females have an XX chromosomal makeup.

If the male gets the colour blind gene on his one X chromosome he will be colourblind. About 1 in 20 males get this.

Women can be carriers of colorblindness meaning they can pass it on, but will most likely not show it.

For a female to be colour blind both X chromosomes need to be colour blind, which is very uncommon, but does occur in less than 1 in 200 females.

Answer 2

No, for the most part. Ordinary females see all the same colors as males. Males are just more prone to color blindness.

However, some females do see more colors then males, and that is called tetrachromia, and those females are carrying the color blindness gene. Females also can be colorblind but its more common in men. The normal human retina's color receptors are tuned to green, blue, and red. Working together, the three give us our colorful view of the world. When one or more of those color receptors is missing the result is colorblindness. While most of us have color vision based on three channels; a tetrachromat has four. What happens there is that a female is carrying the color blindness gene, and both it and the normal gene are equal dominant and are both being expressed. So that means they have amber receptors in addition to the usual three. However, there is a 50% chance that any sons would have colorblindness.

Answer 3

Color blindness is a sex-linked trait, meaning the gene responsible is located on the X chromosome. Males have only one X chromosome, so if they inherit a color blindness gene from their mother, they will be color blind. Females have two X chromosomes, so they must inherit two color blindness genes to be color blind. This makes color blindness more common in males than females.