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)

Question

Responses

25%
25%

100%
100%

50%
50%

75%

Answer 1

In this scenario, we have two mice: one that is heterozygous for tail length (let's denote the alleles as L for long tail and l for short tail, so the genotype of the long-tailed mouse is Ll) and one that is homozygous recessive for short tails (genotype ll).

To determine the chances of having offspring with short tails, we can use a Punnett square:

        L      l
      ----------------
    l |   Ll   |   ll   |
      ----------------
    l |   Ll   |   ll   |
      ----------------

From the Punnett square, we see the potential genotypes of the offspring:

• 50% will be Ll (long tail)
• 50% will be ll (short tail)

Since only the ll genotype results in a short tail, the chances of having offspring with short tails is 50%.

So the correct answer is:

50%