Lots of feral cats have invaded our neighborhood, both males and females. A feral cat is a cat that lives outdoors and has had little or no human contact. One female cat has more toes than the usual five toes on her front paws like the pet cat in the picture. This condition is called polydactyl. Poly= many dactyl= finger or toe. Therefore, polydactyl means many toed.

Question

The cat with more toes than usual gave birth to 5 cats.Another pregnant cat with the usual number of toes gave birth to five cats also.other feral cats with the usual number of toes gave birth to kittens who all had the usual number of toes

mother cats and their litters
mother cats/ kittens with usual toes/kittens with more toes
mother with more toes/3/2
Mother 1 with usual toes/3/2
mother 2 with usual toes/4/0

using information provided and your knowage of genetics you can see polydactyl is a recessive trait complete the punnett square to show a possible cross that could result in a litter with 50% polydactyl kittens

what is the trait for the dad and the mom

Answer 1

To create a Punnett square for the polydactyl trait, we first need to define the genotypes of the mother and the father.

1. Polydactyl Trait:

   • Since you mentioned that polydactyl is a recessive trait, we can denote:
     • P = Normal toes (dominant trait)
     • p = Polydactyl (recessive trait)

   Given that:

• The mother with polydactyl toes has the genotype pp (homozygous recessive).
• The mother with the usual number of toes could be either homozygous dominant PP or heterozygous Pp.

To have a 50% possibilities of polydactyl kittens in the litter, let's assume the father is a carrier (heterozygous). So, we can denote the father's genotype as Pp.

Setting up the Punnett square:

1. The mother (polydactyl) will always contribute p:

   • Mother (pp)

2. The father (normal, but a carrier) can contribute either P or p:

   • Father (Pp)

Punnett Square

| | P | p | |--------|---------|---------| | p | Pp | pp | | p | Pp | pp |

Result Interpretation:

• Pp = Normal toes (carrier) - 50%
• pp = Polydactyl - 50%

Conclusion:

For the possible cross with results in a litter with 50% polydactyl kittens, the trait for the mother is pp (polydactyl), and the trait for the father is Pp (normal toes but a carrier of the polydactyl trait).