Question

Suppose an animal is heterozygous AaBb, and the traits are not linked. When meiosis occurs, what is the total number of possible combinations of gametes that can be made for these traits?

Answer 1

Answer:

4 possible combinations of gametes

Explanation:

The animal is considered an heterozygotic dihybrid because it involves two genes that have different alleles for both genes. The dihybrid animal undergoes meiosis to produce gametes. According to Mendel in his laws of segregation and independent assortment, the alleles of the two genes separate into gametes independently of one another to produce 4 types of gametes.

Number of possible combinations of gametes formed by an heterozygote can be determined by using 2^n, where n is the number of characters. Number of characters or genes involved in this case is 2, Hence, 2^2 = 4 gametes.

The allelic combination in the four gametes are: AB, Ab, aB, ab.