Question

A certain species of grasshopper can have red stripes, yellow stripes, or red and yellow stripes. An RR grasshopper has red stripes, an YY grasshopper has yellow stripes, and an RY grasshopper has red and yellow stripes. A grasshopper with red stripes mates with a grasshopper with yellow stripes. What ratio would you expect to see in the phenotypes of their offspring?

Answer 1

The expected ratio of phenotypes in the offspring of a grasshopper with red stripes and a grasshopper with yellow stripes is 1:2:1 for red-striped, yellow-striped, and red and yellow-striped respectively.

Step-by-step explanation:

When a grasshopper with red stripes mates with a grasshopper with yellow stripes, their offspring can have different combinations of the red (R) and yellow (Y) alleles. The possible genotypes of the offspring are RR, RY, and YY.

Since each combination is equally likely, we can expect a ratio of 1:2:1 for the phenotypes of the offspring. This means that for every red-striped grasshopper (RR), we expect to see twice as many grasshoppers with yellow stripes (YY) and the same amount of grasshoppers with both red and yellow stripes (RY).

Therefore, the expected ratio of phenotypes in the offspring would be 1 red-striped: 2 yellow-striped: 1 red and yellow-striped.

Answer 2

All of the offspring will have RY (Red and yellow stripes). If you set up a punnet square and solve, you will see that all four offspring have RY genotype, therefore their phenotype is red and yellow stripes