Question

N mountain rabbits, the tl-1 gene is located on chromosome 3. three wild-type alleles and one recessive lethal allele of this gene have been identified in the population. with respect to tl-1, what is the maximum number of genotypes in the mountain rabbit population?

Answer 1

If we name the alleles of TL-1 gene as a, b, c, d (d is the lethal one).

The possible genotypes within the populations are: aa, ab, ac, bb, bc and cc. This means that there are 6 possible genotypes of mountain rabbits. The formula would be 32, because there are three wild type alleles and within one organism (its genotype) there are two of them (one from mother and one from father).