Question

Explain why more males tend to suffer from X-linked disorders than females.

Answer 1

In females, the normal or dominant allele is able to suppress the effect of the presence of a mutated, recessive allele in heterozygous condition, and such females tend to be carriers of the disorder, rather than being affected. Hence, the X-linked recessive disorder gets expressed in females only in homozygous recessive condition.

But, males have only one copy of X-chromosome, and if it has the recessive mutation, the disorder tends to get expressed.

Thus, X-linked recessive disorders are more common in males, because its less likely that the female will inherit 2 recessive alleles from each of her parents.