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%
50%

Answer 1

To determine the chances of having offspring with short tails from a cross between a heterozygous long-tailed mouse and a short-tailed mouse, we can use a simple Punnett square.

Let:

• \( L \) = allele for long tail (dominant)
• \( l \) = allele for short tail (recessive)

The genotypes are:

• Heterozygous long-tailed mouse: \( Ll \)
• Short-tailed mouse: \( ll \)

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 offspring
• \( ll \) (short tail) = 2 offspring

Out of a total of 4 offspring, 2 will have short tails (\( ll \)).

Thus, the chances of having offspring with short tails are: 50%.