Question

If the recessive female from Generation III were to have offspring with a heterozygous male, what are the chances the offspring will have the recessive trait?
25%
50%
75%
100%

Answer 1

To determine the chances of offspring having the recessive trait when a recessive female (let's denote her genotype as "aa") has offspring with a heterozygous male (genotype "Aa"), we can set up a simple Punnett square.

- The recessive female (aa) can only contribute "a" alleles.
- The heterozygous male (Aa) can contribute either "A" (dominant) or "a" (recessive).

The possible allele combinations from this cross are:

- From the female (aa):
- a
- a

- From the male (Aa):
- A
- a

Setting up the Punnett square:

```
A a
-------------
a | Aa | aa |
-------------
a | Aa | aa |
-------------
```

The resulting genotypes of the offspring would be:
- 50% Aa (heterozygous, dominant trait expressed)
- 50% aa (homozygous recessive, recessive trait expressed)

Thus, the probability of the offspring having the recessive trait (genotype "aa") is **50%**.

So, the answer is **50%**.