A purebred chicken with white feathers is crossed with a purebred chicken that has black feathers. Each of their offspring has both black and white feathers. Why does this happen?
a
Both alleles for feather color are dominant.
b
Both alleles for feather color are recessive
c
The alleles for feather color are neither dominant nor recessive.
d
Several alleles work together to determine the trait.
A : both dominait
B : both reccesive
C : nor dominait or reccesive
D : work together
The correct answer is c) The alleles for feather color are neither dominant nor recessive.
When a purebred chicken with white feathers is crossed with a purebred chicken with black feathers, you would expect the offspring to have a mix of both black and white feathers. This occurs because the alleles for feather color in this case are neither dominant nor recessive.
Dominant alleles are those that mask the presence of other alleles when present in the genotype, whereas recessive alleles are only expressed if both copies of the gene are recessive.
In the case of feather color in chickens, neither black nor white alleles are dominant or recessive to each other. Instead, they exhibit a phenomenon called codominance. Codominance means that both alleles are expressed simultaneously and can be seen in the phenotype.
Therefore, the offspring of the purebred chicken with white feathers and the purebred chicken with black feathers will have a combination of both black and white feathers. This is because the alleles for feather color are neither dominant nor recessive to each other.