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%

50%
50%

25%
25%

75%

Answer 1

In this scenario, we have a long-tailed mouse that is heterozygous (meaning it has one long tail allele and one short tail allele, represented as "L" for long and "l" for short) mating with a short-tailed mouse (which must be homozygous recessive, represented as "ll").

The possible genotypes of the offspring can be determined using a Punnett square:

• The long-tailed mouse (Ll) can produce two types of gametes: L and l.
• The short-tailed mouse (ll) can produce only one type of gamete: l.

Now, we can set up the Punnett square as follows:

      l      l
   ______________
L |   Ll   |   Ll   |
   |______________|
l |   ll   |   ll   |
   |______________|

From this, we can see the possible offspring genotypes:

• 50% (2 out of 4) will be Ll (long-tailed)
• 50% (2 out of 4) will be ll (short-tailed)

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

The correct response is:

50%