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

50%
50%

25%
25%

75%
75%

100%

Answer 1

To determine the chances 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 simple Punnett square.

- The alleles are:
- L = long tail (dominant)
- l = short tail (recessive)

The genotypes of the parents are:
- Heterozygous long-tailed mouse (Ll)
- Short-tailed mouse (ll)

Now we can set up the Punnett square:

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

From the Punnett square, the possible genotypes of the offspring are:
- 50% (Ll) long-tailed
- 50% (ll) short-tailed

Thus, the chances of having offspring with short tails (ll) is **50%**.