A common trait found in orange tabby cats is the following: being awesome (A) is dominant to being average (a).
A male cat that is homozygous dominant for the A trait is mated with a female cat that is homozygous recessive.
What is the probability that they will have an offspring who is heterozygous? ____ out of _____.
list with percentages
To determine the probability of having an offspring that is heterozygous, we need to consider the genotype of both parents. In this case, the male cat is homozygous dominant (AA) for the "awesome" trait, and the female cat is homozygous recessive (aa) for the "average" trait.
When these two cats mate, the possible combinations of alleles they can pass on to their offspring are as follows:
Male (AA) x Female (aa)
Gametes: A, A | a, a
When we combine the gametes, the possible genotypes of the offspring are:
AA | Aa
AA | Aa
In this case, there are two possible outcomes out of four total combinations that result in the offspring being heterozygous (Aa). Therefore, the probability of having an offspring that is heterozygous is 2 out of 4 or 50%.
Alternatively, this can also be expressed as a percentage. The probability would be 50% or 0.5 when converted to a percentage.