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)

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%.