Genetic drift in sex-linked lethal disorders.

A model is considered to calculate effects of genetic drift on the expected proportion of new mutants amongst males affected by a sex-linked recessive lethal. We show how to relate the number of cases of the disorder in males to the expected deviations from the deterministic value of the proportion of new mutants. For small values of alpha (= 3N mu), where N is the size of the female population, and mu is the mutation rate from wild-type to lethal allele, the standard deviation (SD) of the proportion of new mutants is large. However, if alpha more than 50, the potential effect of genetic drift is probably less important than the many other sources of error and bias.