Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a serious condition caused by a recessive allele of a gene on the human x chromosome. the patients have muscles that weaken over time because they have absent or decreased dystrophin, a muscle protein. they rarely live past their twenties. how likely is it for a woman to have this condition?

Duchenne muyscular dystrophy is caused by a mutation on the X chromosome, so a male gets it from his mother's X, if she is a carrier. The male child gets a Y and no X from his father, so the disease is always transmitted through the X from the mother. If a female gets Duchenne muscular dystrophy she has to have two X chromosomes, one from a carrier mother and another from from an affected father. This is virtually impossible because most males die before childbearing age and there is no way a female child can get an X from a man who does not live long enough to procreate. About eight percent of carrier women do show some muscle weakness, but they do not have the disease. 

C) to ensure each new cell has an exact copy of the dna