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Create a Punnett square to model sexual reproduction of the mother, Tt, and father, Tt. In two to three sentences, describe why Punnett squares do not accurately demonstrate how asexual reproduction passes on traits. Upload your Punnett square and written response below.

a. True
b. False

User Nils Hott
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

A Punnett square depicts possible genotypic outcomes of sexual reproduction between two parents (Tt and Tt in this case), but it does not apply to asexual reproduction, where offspring are clones of a single parent. The correct option is b. False

Step-by-step explanation:

To create a Punnett square for the sexual reproduction of the mother (Tt) and father (Tt), you list one parent's gametes along the top and the other parent's gametes along the side of a grid. In this example, each parent has two types of gametes, T and t. When you fill in the Punnett square, you get four possible genotypic outcomes (TT, Tt, tT, and tt) for the offspring, each representing the genotype of a possible zygote.

However, Punnett squares do not accurately demonstrate how asexual reproduction passes on traits because asexual reproduction involves only one parent, and the offspring are genetically identical to the parent. There is no combination of alleles from two parents, so the Punnett square, which is based on sexual reproduction involving meiosis and fertilization, is not applicable to asexual reproduction. The correct option is b. False

User Slobodan Ilic
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