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Two heterozygous white rabbits (with brown fur being recessive) are crossed. What does the offspring look like? Show your work.

**Solution:**

1. **Determine the Genotype:**
- White fur is dominant (W), and brown fur is recessive (w).
- Each parent is heterozygous, so their genotypes are Ww.

2. **Use a Punnett Square:**

| | W | w |
|-----|-----|-----|
| **W** | WW | Ww |
| **w** | Ww | ww |

3. **Results:**
- WW: 25% chance (Homozygous dominant - White fur)
- Ww: 50% chance (Heterozygous - White fur)
- ww: 25% chance (Homozygous recessive - Brown fur)

**Conclusion:**
- 75% of the offspring will have white fur.
- 25% of the offspring will have brown fur.

Answer :

Final answer:

When crossing two heterozygous white rabbits, the offspring will display a phenotypic ratio of 3 brown rabbits to 1 white rabbit. The brown fur is expressed in both homozygous dominant (BB) and heterozygous (Bb) genotypes, while the white fur is expressed in the homozygous recessive (bb) genotype. Thus, most of the offspring will be brown.


Explanation:

Understanding Rabbit Coat Color Inheritance


In this problem, we are dealing with two heterozygous white rabbits. Since brown fur is recessive, we can denote the alleles for the coat color as follows:



  • B = Brown (dominant)

  • b = White (recessive)


The genotype of each parent rabbit is Bb. When crossing these two rabbits, we can set up a Punnett square:



Punnett Square



  • Parental Gametes

    • B (from first parent)

    • b (from first parent)



  • Parental Gametes

    • B (from second parent)

    • b (from second parent)





B b
-----------------
| BB | Bb |
|-------|-------|
| Bb | bb |
-----------------

The resulting offspring will have the following genotypes:



  • 1 BB - Homozygous dominant (Brown fur)

  • 2 Bb - Heterozygous (Brown fur)

  • 1 bb - Homozygous recessive (White fur)



This results in a phenotypic ratio of:



  • 3 Brown (1 BB + 2 Bb)

  • 1 White (1 bb)


Therefore, for the offspring produced from two heterozygous white rabbits, the expected phenotypes will predominantly be brown (75% brown fur) and white (25% white fur).


Learn more about rabbit coat color inheritance here:

https://brainly.com/question/31821305


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