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
The male cat is homozygous dominant, meaning it has two copies of the A allele (AA). The female cat is homozygous recessive, meaning it has two copies of the recessive a allele (aa).
When these cats mate, each parent can only contribute one allele to their offspring. The male cat can only contribute the A allele, and the female cat can only contribute the a allele.
The possible genotypes for the offspring are:
1. AA
2. Aa (heterozygous)
3. Aa (heterozygous)
4. aa
Since only 2 out of the 4 possible genotypes (AA, Aa, Aa, aa) are heterozygous (Aa), the probability of having an offspring who is heterozygous is 2 out of 4 or 1 out of 2.
Therefore, the probability of having an offspring who is heterozygous is 1/2 or 0.5.