In: Biology
A son is born with Kleinfelter's syndrome and hemophilia. His father was normal and his mother was a carrier for the recessive X-linked blood clotting disorder. What occurred in meiosis to produce this genetic outcome?
a. Nondisjunction in meiosis I of the mother
b. Nondisjunction in meiosis II of the father
c. Nondisjunction in either meiosis I or meiosis II of the father
d. Nondisjunction in meiosis II of the mother
e. Nondisjunction in meiosis I of the father
Ans: Kleinfelter's syndrome is a disorder which occur in male and in which they have an extra X chromosome. Now both mother and father can be the donor of the extra X chromosome. Now as it is given in the question that the son along with the syndrome also suffer from hemophilia and hemophilia is a X-linked recessive disorder. Now it is also given in the question that the mother a carrier of hemophilia and let's consider her genotype Xxr where xr is representing allele for hemophilia and father is normal for this disorder and let's consider his genotype xx which means that if the non disjunction occur in mother and she will be the carrier of extra X chromosome then the genotype of the son is XxrY and he will also be the carrier of hemophilia but do not suffer from hemophilia. Now if father will be the carrier of extra X chromosome and non disjunction occur in father's than the genotype of the son is xxrY and he will be suffering from hemophilia. So non disjuntion will occur in father's meiosis.
In this syndrome The extra chromosome is retained because of a nondisjunction event during paternal meiosis I, maternal meiosis I, or maternal meiosis II (gametogenesis). The relevant nondisjunction in meiosis I occurs when homologous chromosomes, in this case the X and Y or two X sex chromosomes, fail to separate, producing a sperm with an X and a Y chromosome or an egg with two X chromosomes. Fertilizing a normal (X) egg with this sperm produces an XXY offspring (Klinefelter). Fertilizing a double X egg with a normal sperm also produces an XXY offspring (Klinefelter).
So from all this we can conclude that the reason behind the son's disorder and hemophilia is Nondisjunction in meiosis I of father.
So option e is correct.