Question

If an actor shares one parent with a recipient, what is their coefficient of relatedness in a diploid, sexually reproducing species?

1) 1/4
2) 0
3) 1/8
4) 1
5) 1/16

Answer 1

The coefficient of relatedness between individuals who share one parent in a diploid species is 1/4, reflecting the sharing of half the genetic contributions from that one parent.

Step-by-step explanation:

If an actor shares one parent with a recipient, their coefficient of relatedness in a diploid, sexually reproducing species is 1/4 or 25%. This reflects the probability that a gene copy in one individual is an identical copy by descent from a common ancestor in another individual. Since each parent contributes half of the genes to their offspring, sharing one parent would mean that the actor and recipient share half of the genetic contribution from that one parent. In other words, given that any particular allele from the shared parent has a 1/2 chance of being passed on to each offspring, the coefficient of relatedness between the two offspring for the genes from the shared parent would be 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/4, since each offspring gets half of their genes from each parent.