Lisa breeds snakes. She bred a solid brown male python with a tan female python whose body was covered with a black diamond pattern. Upon hatching, all of the baby pythons were brown with a faint diamond pattern.

Question

Which of the following inheritance patterns most likely determined the color of Lisa's baby pythons?

A. incomplete dominance

B. codominance

Cautosomal dominant-recessive

D. sex-linked

Answer 1

The inheritance pattern that most likely determined the color of Lisa's baby pythons is A. incomplete dominance.

In this scenario, the male python is solid brown, and the female python has a tan color with a black diamond pattern. The offspring being brown with a faint diamond pattern suggests that neither parent's traits are fully expressed in the offspring; instead, there is a blending of the brown color and the patterned trait from the mother. This fits with the concept of incomplete dominance, where the phenotype of heterozygotes is intermediate between the phenotypes of the two homozygotes.

Codominance would present both traits distinctly, and sex-linked traits are typically tied to the sex chromosomes rather than the observed color and pattern traits here. Autosomal dominant-recessive would imply clear dominance and recessiveness, which is not evident in the results. Therefore, incomplete dominance is the best choice based on the description given.