Two cats are both heterozygous for hair length, Ll, and heterozygous for white hair, Ww. Short hair and white hair are dominant to long hair and colored hair, respectively. What are the odds that the pair’s offspring would show the following phenotypes (proportions can be used more than once)?
3/16
9/16
1/16
short, white hair
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short, colored hair
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long, white hair
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long, colored hair
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The phenotypes of the offspring can be determined by using a Punnett square to calculate the probabilities of each possible phenotype:
1. Short, white hair:
- Genotypes: SW, Sw, sW, sw
- Probability: 9/16
2. Short, colored hair:
- Genotypes: SsWw, SswW, Ssw, sSW, sSw, ssW, sswW
- Probability: 6/16 or 3/8
3. Long, white hair:
- Genotypes: LLWW, LLWw, LLww, LlWW, LlWw, Llww
- Probability: 1/16 or 1/8
4. Long, colored hair:
- Genotypes: LlWw, Llww, LlWw, Llww
- Probability: 0/16
Therefore, the odds of the pair's offspring showing the following phenotypes are:
- 9/16 for short, white hair
- 3/8 for short, colored hair
- 1/16 for long, white hair
- 0/16 for long, colored hair.