Question

In horses, a black coat is dominant to a brown coat (B = black, b = brown). Long legs are dominant to short legs (L = long, l = short). A black short-legged horse is crossed with a brown long-legged horse. The offspring of the cross is a brown short-legged horse.

a) Identify the genotypes of all three horses.

Answer 1

Bb ll for the black short-legged horse

bb Ll for the brown long-legged horse

bb ll for the offspring

Step-by-step explanation:

In order for the offspring to have the two recessive traits, the parents must have been carrying the recessive genes on at least 1 allele. The first horse is black, but it must have a little b for the offspring to gain a little b from it. The second horse and the offspring are brown, so they must both have two little b's. The same goes for the length of the legs. The first horse and offspring must have two little l's because they have short legs and the second horse must have 1 little l in order for the offspring to inherit 1.