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Agapanthus is a dominant, homozygous lethal trait among Telorites from the plane

ID: 132003 • Letter: A

Question

Agapanthus is a dominant, homozygous lethal trait among Telorites from the planet Teleflora. Subjects with this condition love to send flowers. From a group of Telorites heterozygous at the Agapanthus locus (with two alleles: A = dominant (trait) allele, a = recessive (wild-type) allele), 88% of the Telorites have the Agapanthus phenotype, and 12% look wild-type.

Also, true-breeding wild-type Telorites (aa genotype) have 0% penetrance.

A Telorite with the Agapanthus phenotype mates with a true-breeding Telorite with the wild-type phenotype. One of the F1 children is randomly selected and is mated back to the true-breeding wild-type parent. Out of three F2 individuals, we only observe the wild-type phenotype.

The genotype of the randomly-selected F1 subject must be:

A. AA.

B. We cannot say with certainty.

C. Aa.

D. aa.

E. Aa and aa.

Explanation / Answer

Option D. aa

Heterozygous Agapanthus - Aa

True-breeding Telorites wild type- aa

crossing Agapanthus and true breeding wild type - Aa X aa

F1 generation- Aa Aa aa aa

As per question; one random F1 child is mated with wild type:

Therefore; if we take 'Aa' and mate with wild type: Aa X aa

F2 generation- Aa Aa aa aa (2 wild-type and 2 Agapanthus)

if we take 'aa' and mate with wild type: aa X aa

F2 generation- aa aa aa aa (all wild type)

As per given condition, 3 F2 individuals have wild type phenotype. This is possible only if the randomly selected F1 subject is aa.