Interviewee: Matt Ridley. The two genes that produce red and green light-sensitive proteins are located on the X chromosome. Mutations in these genes can cause color blindness. Color blindness is a common inherited sex-linked disorder that affects a person’s ability to see or recognize certain colors. Eight to ten percent of all males and one half of a percent of all females are color-blind. (DNAi Location: Genome > Tour > Genome spot > Chromosome X: Color vision > A chromosome X story)

Most of our chromosomes come in pairs; we get one from each parent. But the X chromosome is an exception. Women have a pair of X chromosomes, men have only one from their mother. Color blindness is found in men much more often than women, and the reason is because men don't have a spare X chromosome. So if the red-green color blindness gene is not working in a man, there's no spare one to replace it with.

red green color blindness ridley talks chromosome mutations chromosome x matt ridley sensitive proteins x chromosome x chromosomes x story color vision interviewee sex linked disorder genes females pairs colors