Why does Lee have vitiligo, a skin condition his parents don't have?

Lee's Vitiligo Condition

Lee has vitiligo, a skin condition in which he loses pigment in his skin, but neither of his parents have this condition. This raises the question of how Lee developed this condition despite his parents not exhibiting any signs of vitiligo.

Possible Explanations

The following reasons best describe how Lee may have developed this condition:

A) Lee received a recessive gene from one of his parents for the condition.

B) Lee received a recessive gene from each parent for the condition.

C) Lee received a dominant gene from each parent for the condition.

D) Lee received two dominant genes from one parent for the condition.

Final answer:

The correct answer is option B. Considering a pattern similar to albinism, Lee likely inherited a recessive gene from each of his parents, making it the most plausible scenario for vitiligo manifestation.

Explanation:

Vitiligo is a condition where melanocytes lose their ability to produce melanin, leading to unpigmented patches of skin. This can be due to an autoimmune reaction and is not necessarily inherited in a simple recessive or dominant fashion as albinism can be.

However, if we assume that vitiligo follows a similar inheritance pattern as albinism for the sake of this question, and considering that neither of Lee's parents have vitiligo, it's most plausible that Lee inherited a recessive gene from each parent for the condition. This means that both parents would have been carriers of the recessive allele without expressing the condition themselves since they would likely be heterozygous for the normal pigmentation allele.