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

50%
50%

75%
75%

100%
100%

25%

Answer 1

To determine the chances of having offspring with short tails when a heterozygous long-tailed mouse (genotype Ll) mates with a short-tailed mouse (genotype ll), we can set up a simple Punnett square.

• Parent 1 (long-tailed, heterozygous): Ll
• Parent 2 (short-tailed, homozygous recessive): ll

The possible combinations for their offspring would be:

| | L | l | |------|-----|-----| | l | Ll | ll | | l | Ll | ll |

From the Punnett square, we can see the potential genotypes of the offspring:

• 50% Ll (long-tailed)
• 50% ll (short-tailed)

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

So the correct answer is 50%.