Question

Coat color in rabbits involves the effects of multiple gene interactions. If a rabbit has two recessive alleles (cc) for coat color, it is always albino no matter what the genotype of other genes involved in coat color. This is an example of pleiotropy. incomplete dominance. codominance.

Answer 1

The question is incomplete. Complete options for the question are as follows:

a. pleiotropy.

b. incomplete dominance.

c. codominance.

d. a hierarchy of dominance.

e. epistasis.

Answer:

e. epistasis

Step-by-step explanation:

Epistasis is a type of intergenic interaction. Presence of one gene influences the effect of other gene. Simply put, one gene masks the phenotype given by other gene. It is of two types: dominant epistasis and recessive epistasis. For example: if dominant allele of one gene masks the effect of other gene, it is called as dominant epistasis. Irrespective of the type of allele of second gene, the dominant allele will produce its own effect.

Here, coat colour in rabbits is an example of recessive epistasis. C gene in its recessive form cc will always produce albino coat no matter what combination is present of other coat colour controlling genes. Hence its recessive form is epistatic over all other coat colour genes.