Monday, January 18, 2010

What was the genotype of the normal rabbit? How do you know? What are possible genotypes of the offspring?

Suppose that an albino female rabbit mates with a normal male rabbit, whose father was an albino. The allele for albinism is recessive (a) and is not sex-linked. Albinism is a condition that results when an animal does not have the pigment melanin.What was the genotype of the normal rabbit? How do you know? What are possible genotypes of the offspring?
First of all, since the trait for albinism is a, an albino rabbit must have the genotype aa. The normal male rabbit would have to have the genotype Aa. You can figure this out because you know that you get one allele from each parent, and the problem tells you that the father was albino (aa). The problem also tells you that the male rabbit has normal coloring, meaning that he must also have an A allele (because a dominant allele will be expressed over a recessive allele. You could also think of it as a= no pigmentation (color) and A= pigmentation (color), so as long as you have at least one A you will produce color).





To find the possible genotypes, you must do a Punnet square of the parents' genotypes. You would cross aa (mother) with Aa (father).

No comments:

Post a Comment