Sex-linked Inheritance in DrosophilaMorgan, Thomas Hunt
Science
Sex-linked Inheritance in Drosophila
Morgan, Thomas Hunt
Drosophila; Heredity
The sons get their single X chromosome from their mother, and should
therefore show any character whose gen is carried by such a chromosome. In
sex-linked inheritance all sons show the characters of their mother. A male
transmits his sex-linked character to his daughters, who show it if
dominant and conceal it if recessive. But any daughter will transmit such a
character, whether dominant or recessive, to half of her sons. The path of
transmission of the gen is the same as the path followed by the X
chromosome, received here {7} from the male. Many other combinations show
the same relations. In the case of non-disjunction, to be given later,
there is direct experimental evidence of such a nature that there can no
longer be any doubt that the X chromosomes are the carriers of certain gens
that we speak of as sex-linked. This term (sex-linked) is intended to mean
that such characters are carried by the X chromosome. It has been objected
that this use of the term implies a knowledge of a factor for sex in the X
chromosome to which the other factors in that chromosome are linked; but in
fact we have as much knowledge in regard to the occurrence of a sex factor
or sex factors in the X chromosome as we have for other factors. It is true
we do not know whether there is more than one sex-factor, because there is
no crossing-over in the male (the heterozygous sex), and crossing-over in
the female does not influence the distribution of sex, since like parts are
simply interchanged. It follows from this that we are unable as yet to
locate the sex factor or factors in the X chromosome. The fact that we can
not detect crossing-over under this condition is not an argument against
the occurrence of linkage. We are justified, therefore, in speaking of the
factors carried by the X chromosome as sex-linked.
CROSSING-OVER.
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