Morgan buys a male python from a snake dealer who tells him that the snake carries the albino allele.Morgan mates the snake with an albino female and four normally pigmented offspring are produced.Morgan rushes back to the snake dealer and demands his money back stating that the male he bought is not heterozygous for the albino allele because all of its offspring had normal pigmentation.
A) True because according to the laws of probability, at least one of the offspring should have been an albino.
B) True because 50% of all offspring produced must be albino.
C) False because for each offspring there is a 50% chance that it will have normal pigmentation.
D) False because a heterozygous male will only pass the dominant allele to its offspring.
E) True because if at least one parent is homozygous recessive, at least one of their offspring must also show the recessive trait.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The presence of the albino allele in the male python does not guarantee that it is heterozygous for that allele. It is possible that the male python is homozygous for the normal pigmentation allele. When the male is mated with an albino female, each offspring has a 50% chance of inheriting the albino allele and a 50% chance of inheriting the normal pigmentation allele. Therefore, it is possible for all four offspring to have normal pigmentation if they happen to inherit the normal pigmentation allele from the male. The laws of probability do not guarantee the presence of an albino offspring.

Morgan Buys a Male Python from a Snake Dealer Who