Question

The white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, is common in the Eastern United States. Most deer have reddish brown fur, but occasionally a deer may be born with a genetic condition known as albinism which results in white fur. Albinism is caused by the inheritance of two recessive alleles for the production of coloration pigments. If an albino deer is born to two parents who each have normal fur coloration, what conclusion may be drawn about the genotypes of the parent deer?

Answer 1

The recessive genes are the genes that stay hidden away for some animals and show up later. Example, If the deer's parents had perfectly fine fur, than that means that its grandparents or great grandparents could of had the white fur disorder.
Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Both the parents must be the carrier of recessive genes along with dominant gene

Step-by-step explanation:

Recessive genes are genes that are expressed only when two recessive alleles are inherited from the parents.

A dominant gene is expressed in two cases a) when two dominant alleles are inherited or b) when one dominant and one recessive allele are inherited.

since parents have normal fur color but they are producing white fur coloured deer (Albinitic offsprings) this means that both of the parents must be the carrier of recessive genes.

Let the allele for “normal fur colour” be expressed by C

Allele for “white fur color” be expressed by c.

Both the parents have heterozygous dominant gene (which is carrier if recessive allele "c"), thus their genotype would be Cc

Let see the punnet square below -

C c

C CC Cc

c Cc cc

Out of the four offspring’s produced only “cc” represents white fur deer.