Question

The wild-type coat color, agouti (AA) is dominant to solid-colored fur (aa). However, a separate gene C, when present as the recessive homozygote (cc), negates any expression of pigment from the A gene and results in an albino mouse. Therefore, the genotypes AAcc, Aacc, and aacc all produce the same albino phenotype. A cross between heterozygotes for both genes (AaCc x AaCc) would generate offspring with a phenotypic ratio of 9 agouti:3 black:4 albino. Which type of gene interaction is this

a. Complementary gene interaction.b. Duplicate gene interaction.c. Recessive epistasis.

Answer 1

This is an example of recessive epistasis.

Step-by-step explanation:

Gene interactions happen between genes at different levels and have implications in the phenotypic expression, causing a wide genetic variability.

Epistasis means "interruption" and refers to interactions between genes located in different loci in the same chromosome. An “epistatic gene” can alter, influence, or suppress the expression of a "hypostatic gene". When the epistatic gene is recessive, the interaction is known as "recessive epistasis".

Observing the altered phenotype proportions of the offspring can reveal which interaction is operating in the trait determination.

In recessive epistasis, the proportion is 9:3:4.