L-cone pigment genes expressed in normal colour vision.

To directly test the hypothesis that only two pigment genes are expressed from the X-chromosome array, we examined expressed M and L pigment gene sequences from > 100 male eye donors. In this sample, there were eight men who expressed high levels of more than one L pigment gene in addition to M pigment genes. The fact that these eyes expressed both L and M pigment genes at significant levels suggests they were from men with normal colour vision. We reject the hypothesis that only two pigment genes from one X-chromosome array can be expressed.