So I'm writing a term paper regarding colour vision and colour blindness. Anyway, while reading a paper on colour blindness, apparently red-green colour blindness is the most common form (there's three cones in your eye, red/green/blue, each coded by a different gene).
So the genes that code the red and green cones are both on the X-chromosome, one after the other. The reason that these two genes mutate the most is:
"The red and green cone genes are highly homologous, which predisposed them to unequal crossing over (recombination) resulting in gene deletions and in formation of red-green hybride genes that encode a variety of pigments with either red-like of green-like spectra that account for the majority of colour vision defects."
So it's been a while since I last learned about recombination, etc.. Why would being similar genes lead to more mutations? Apparently these two genes only differ by 3 amino acids.
So the genes that code the red and green cones are both on the X-chromosome, one after the other. The reason that these two genes mutate the most is:
"The red and green cone genes are highly homologous, which predisposed them to unequal crossing over (recombination) resulting in gene deletions and in formation of red-green hybride genes that encode a variety of pigments with either red-like of green-like spectra that account for the majority of colour vision defects."
So it's been a while since I last learned about recombination, etc.. Why would being similar genes lead to more mutations? Apparently these two genes only differ by 3 amino acids.
).