Question

In Shorthorn cattle, both red coat color and white coat color are true breeding. Crosses of red cattle x white cattle produce offspring that are uniformly reddish brown but thickly sprinkled with white hairs. This type of coat color is called roan. Crosses of roan x roan produce 1/4 red : 2/4 roan: 1/4 white. What kind of genetic inheritance can explain these results

Answer 1

The results can be explained by incomplete dominance, where neither allele is dominant and the heterozygous individual displays an intermediate phenotype.

Step-by-step explanation:

The kind of genetic inheritance that can explain the results of crosses between roan cattle is incomplete dominance. In incomplete dominance, neither allele is dominant over the other, and the heterozygous individual displays an intermediate phenotype. When red cattle (RR) are crossed with white cattle (WW), the offspring have a genotype of RW, resulting in the roan phenotype, which is a mix of red and white hairs.

This type of inheritance is similar to what is observed in snapdragons, where a cross between a homozygous parent with white flowers (CWCW) and a homozygous parent with red flowers (CRCR) produces offspring with pink flowers (CRCW). In both cases, the heterozygous genotype produces an intermediate phenotype.

Answer 2

Incomplete domiance

Step-by-step explanation:

The type of genetic inheritance that can explain the result is incomplete dominance.

In incomplete dominance genetic inheritance, one of the two alleles representing a gene exert a somewhat incomplete effects on the other allele. The allele that is supposed to be recessive is expressed, although in very minute quantity.

An example of incomplete dominance can also be illustrated in a cross involving a white flowered plant and a red flower plant which produce offspring with pink flowers. The red allele exhibited incomplete dominance over the white allele.