Question

Suppose that a single gene in a population has three alleles, or variants, A1, A2, and A3. In a mating pair of birds, the male has alleles Aį and A2, and the female has alleles A and A3. AA2 А.Аз What is the probability that A3 will be passed to any offspring?

Answer 1

Explanation: The probability of any offspring inheriting allele A3 from the female is 50%. Since the offspring will either inherit the allele from the mother's first chromosome or the second chromosome. This is because the female has one A1 allele and one A3 allele, and each chromosome that a parent contributes to the offspring is chosen randomly.

In this mating pair, the offspring will receive one allele from each parent, which means that each offspring has a 50% chance of inheriting A1 from the father, a 50% chance of inheriting A2 from the father, a 50% chance of inheriting A1 from the mother, and a 50% chance of inheriting A3 from the mother.

So, to find the probability of the offspring inheriting A3, we multiply the probabilities of each event:

P(A3) = P(A3 from mother) * P(A1 or A2 from father)

= 0.5 * 0.5

= 0.25

Therefore, the probability of any offspring inheriting allele A3 from the female is 0.25 or 25%.