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

100%
100%

25%
25%

75%
75%

50%

Answer 1

To determine the probability of having offspring with short tails from a mating between a heterozygous long-tailed mouse (genotype Ll) and a short-tailed mouse (genotype ll), we can set up a Punnett square.

• The heterozygous long-tailed mouse has the alleles Ll (L = long tail, l = short tail).
• The short-tailed mouse has the alleles ll.

When we set up the Punnett square, we combine the alleles from each parent:

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

The possible offspring genotypes are:

• Ll (long tail) - 2 occurrences
• ll (short tail) - 2 occurrences

From this analysis, we can see that the chances for the offspring genotype are:

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

Therefore, the chances of having offspring with short tails (genotype ll) are 50%.

So, the correct response is 50%.