A species is found to exist in one of three colors. Assuming an epistatic interaction, how many genes would be involved?
A) zero
B) one
C) two
D) three
E) six

Question

A species is found to exist in one of three colors. Assuming an epistatic interaction, how many genes would be involved?
A) ​zero
B) ​one
C) ​two
D) ​three
E) ​six

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Epistasis refers to the interaction between genes where the expression of one gene is affected by the presence of another gene. In this case, the presence of one gene (or allele) affects the expression of another gene, resulting in the observed color variation. Since there are three colors and assuming a simple two-allele model for each gene, there could be two genes involved, each with two alleles, resulting in three colors (e.g. A_B_, A_bb, aaB_). Therefore, the best choice is C - two genes.

A Species Is Found to Exist in One of Three