A man is homozygous for an autosomal recessive genetic condition. His mate does not possess the allele. What are the chances that their first son would express the condition?
what percent
of their children would carry the allele for the genetic condition?
If the man is homozygous for the autosomal recessive genetic condition, he would have two copies of the allele (aa). His mate does not possess the allele, so she would be considered homozygous dominant (AA).
When they have children, all the children will inherit one allele from each parent. Therefore, all the children will inherit one copy of the recessive allele from the father (a), but they will also inherit the dominant allele from the mother (A). Since the dominant allele masks the expression of the recessive allele, the children will not express the genetic condition.
However, all of their children will be carriers for the genetic condition, meaning that they have the potential to pass on the allele to their own offspring. The chances of their first son expressing the condition would be 0%.