Question

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) Responses 25% 25% 75% 75% 50% 50% 100%

Answer 1

To solve this problem, we can set up a Punnett square to determine the possible genotypes of the offspring.

Let's denote the alleles as follows:
- **L** = allele for long tail (dominant)
- **l** = allele for short tail (recessive)

The genotypes of the mice are:
- The long-tailed mouse that is heterozygous would have the genotype **Ll**.
- The short-tailed mouse has the genotype **ll**.

Now, let's set up a Punnett square:

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

The possible genotypes of the offspring are:
- **Ll** (long tail) = 2 instances
- **ll** (short tail) = 2 instances

From the Punnett square, we see that:
- 2 out of 4 (50%) of the offspring will have a long tail (Ll).
- 2 out of 4 (50%) of the offspring will have a short tail (ll).

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