How does the autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance work?
A disease governed by the autosomal dominant pattern is developed when only one parent passes on one defective gene. Offspring have a 50 percent chance of inheriting an autosomal dominant disease. These diseases can also occur because of spontaneous mutations. Once a spontaneous mutation occurs, it can then be transmitted to future generations. How is autosomal recessive inheritance different? Both parents must pass on the same or similar gene defects for children to inherit a recessive disease. If one gene in a pair is normal and the other defective, the person is a carrier. Carriers of genetic defects have minimal, if any, disease symptoms.Children of parents who each carry a gene for the same recessive disease have a 25 percent chance of inheriting two flawed genes and therefore developing the disease. These diseases are unlikely to be due to spontaneous mutations, since two mutations have to occur to produce the disease. How does inheritance work in X-linked recessive diseases? X-l
