Population Genetics Simulation review 1 2.. Suppose you are a cat breeder involv
ID: 258939 • Letter: P
Question
Population Genetics Simulation review 1
2.. Suppose you are a cat breeder involved in breeding and showing exotic cats. You notice that one litter of kittens contains curly-haired male.This is the first time you have noted this genetic characteristic and no one in the Cat Breeders Association has ever seen it before. Because the other kittens in the litter not curly-haired, you reason that this novel trait must be due to a mutant recessive allele that has been hidden in this breed until now.It is a desirable, because the coat is soft and the hair does not fall out as readily as normal hair.This cat could sell for about $600. The normalcost of breed of cat is about $250. You would obviously like to obtain more of these curly-haired animals.What type of breeding program would give you large numbers of curly-haired cats in the shortest time?This time, you are trying to increase the number of recessive lethal alleles.Inbreeding is common among the animal population
Explanation / Answer
According to the information, the mutant cat contains a homozygous recessively inherited mutation leading to change in hair texture. However, this trait is not lethal in nature since the cat is alive. Thus, in order to increase the frequency of this allele in the cat population, highly controlled in-breeding must be performed under close observation. This would lead to slowly increase the number of cats with this allele, either in homozygous or heterozygous condition and hence more cats with curly hair could be obtained.