In mice, the gene for tail length has two alleles. A long tail is dominant to a short tail. If a long-tailed mouse that is heterozygous mates with a short-tailed mouse, what are the chances of having offspring with short tails?(1 point)Responses100%100%50%50%25%25%75%

Answer 1

To solve this, let's define the alleles:

• Let \( L \) be the allele for a long tail (dominant).
• Let \( l \) be the allele for a short tail (recessive).

The genotypes are as follows:

• The heterozygous long-tailed mouse has the genotype \( Ll \).
• The short-tailed mouse has the genotype \( ll \).

When these two mice mate, we can set up a Punnett square to determine the possible genotypes of their offspring:

\[ \begin{array}{c|c|c} & l & l \ \hline L & Ll & Ll \ \hline l & ll & ll \ \end{array} \]

From this Punnett square, we see the possible genotypes for the offspring:

• \( Ll \) (long tail) - 2 squares
• \( ll \) (short tail) - 2 squares

So, out of the 4 possible offspring, 2 will have long tails and 2 will have short tails.

To find the probability of having offspring with short tails:

\[ \text{Probability of short tails} = \frac{\text{Number of short-tailed offspring}}{\text{Total number of offspring}} = \frac{2}{4} = 0.5 \text{ or } 50% \]

Thus, the chances of having offspring with short tails is 50%.