Mr and Mrs

Multiple Choice

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three sons in elementary school. Two of their children are progressing normally, but their youngest son, Charles, has been much slower than his siblings in developing speech and language skills. His parents are concerned that he has a learning disability and decide to investigate further. Since some learning disabilities can be genetically based, their pediatrician recommends a chromosomal analysis.
The results show that Charles has a trisomy of the sex chromosomes, diagnosed as XYY. A mistake during sperm formation resulted in an extra copy of the Y chromosome. The extra copy was passed on to Charles during fertilization. Most often, this chromosomal change causes no unusual physical features or medical problems, but those with trisomy of the sex chromosomes may have a higher-than-normal risk of delays in learning development.
-The problem that occurred during meiosis in sperm formation was

A) nondisjunction involving a Y chromosome.
B) an inversion of the X chromosome, preventing the pairing of sex chromosomes.
C) failure of the second meiotic division to take place.
D) formation of diploid sperm.