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%

100%
100%

75%
75%

25%

Answer 1

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

Let's denote the alleles:

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

The genotypes of the mice are:

• Heterozygous long-tailed mouse: Ll
• Short-tailed mouse: ll

Now, we can set up the Punnett square:

        L     l
      __________
    l |  Ll  |  ll  |  
      |______|______|
    l |  Ll  |  ll  |  
      |______|______|  

From the Punnett square, the possible genotypes of the offspring are:

• Ll (long tail)
• Ll (long tail)
• ll (short tail)
• ll (short tail)

The offspring genotypes are:

• 2 long-tailed (Ll)
• 2 short-tailed (ll)

This means that 50% of the offspring will have short tails.

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