Question

You are a wildlife biologist in charge of managing a population of Spotted Owls in Glacier National Park. There are a total of 800 owls in the population. Your records indicate that last generation 50 owls died before reproducing due to a lethal recessive genetic disorder. How many owls are likely to die in the next generation due to this affliction. You may answer this in words, as a formula or numerically.  

Answer 1

Ans :25

Recessive lethals

A pair of identical alleles that are both present in an organism that ultimately results in death of that organism are referred to as recessive lethal alleles. Though recessive lethals may code for dominant or recessive traits, they are only fatal in the homozygous condition. Heterozygotes will sometimes display a form of diseased phenotype, as in the case of achondroplasia. One mutant lethal allele can be tolerated, but having two results in death. In the case of homozygous achondroplasia, death almost invariably occurs before birth or in the perinatal period. Not all heterozygotes for recessive lethal alleles will show a mutant phenotype, as is the case for cystic fibrosis carriers. If two cystic fibrosis carriers have children, they have a 25 percent chance of producing offspring having two copies of the lethal allele, eventually resulting in the death of the child.