Question

A father has blond hair. A mother has black hair. Their three offspring have brown hair, blond hair, and red hair, respectively. Which pattern of inheritance could account for human hair color? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

polygenic inheritance

Step-by-step explanation:

The pattern of inheritance that could account for human hair color according to the illustration is polygenic inheritance.

In polygenic inheritance, multiple alleles (the alternate versions of the same genes) controls the trait for hair color. Individuals that inherit different combinations of alleles from the same parents will have different hair colors.

In this case, there are alleles that determines blond hairs, black hairs, brown hairs, and red hairs. All these alleles are alternate versions of the same gene. The father could be carrying blond/brown alleles and the mother is carrying black/red alleles or vice versa, their offspring will exhibit different hair color depending on which allele is dominant or recessive.