In rabbits, there is a gene that controls ear length, with a dominant allele "t" for long ears and a recessive allele "t" for short ears. at another gene locus, there are alleles "b" for black coat and "w" for white coat. neither the b or w allele is dominant, and bw produces a gray coat. these two allele pairs assort independently. if a gray rabbit that is heterozygous at the gene locus controlling ear length is mated with a white rabbit that is also heterozygous at the gene locus controlling ear length, what proportion of the long-eared offspring will be homozygous for the long-eared trait?

Question

Callie Palmer

Biology

22 June, 15:00

In rabbits, there is a gene that controls ear length, with a dominant allele "t" for long ears and a recessive allele "t" for short ears. at another gene locus, there are alleles "b" for black coat and "w" for white coat. neither the b or w allele is dominant, and bw produces a gray coat. these two allele pairs assort independently. if a gray rabbit that is heterozygous at the gene locus controlling ear length is mated with a white rabbit that is also heterozygous at the gene locus controlling ear length, what proportion of the long-eared offspring will be homozygous for the long-eared trait?

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Heidi May · Answer 1

With classic Mendelian genetics, there would be 25% of the rabbits litter as homozygous for the long ear trait. This is because each rabbit has a 50% change of providing a dominant T allele for long ears, resulting in a 50% times 50% chance of them producing the TT offspring rabbit.