Question

A woman who has sickle cell anemia passes this disease on to her offspring. This means that the mutation for sickle cell anemia must occur in the woman’s what?

Answer 1

The mutation will occur on the X chromosome. Males are more susceptible to sickle cell amenia because they only carry one X chromosome instead of two when compared to a set of female chromosomes. If a female only has the mutation on one chromosome the disease will not appear. However, when a male recieves the mutation on the X chromosome, the disease would appear, because they only have one X chromosome.