In: Biology
Answer:
Family A: Both
parents are phenotypically normal. They have normal children and
those with hypotrichosis.
This indicates that the recessive allele is present in both the
parents, which when passed on to the offsprings will cause the
condition to appear.
Therefore family A are phenotypically normal parents and are
genotypically heterozygous (Hh). Pedigree is shown here along with
probable genotypes.:
Family B: also has hypotrichosis in children. Father is phenotypically normal and his wife has hypotrichosis. Hence genotypically father can only be a heterozygous carrier (Hh). The mother suffers from hypotrichosis hence homozygous recessive (HH). Pedigree is shown here along with genotypes:
Family C: has two phenotypically normal individuals, one from each family A & B. There will be two genotypic possibilities here as shown by two punnet squares (Case I and Case II) below:
Answer
e):
The probability that their first offspring is hypotrichotic:
As seen from punnet square
above,
In case I - There is a 0%
probability, that the first child will be
hypotrichotic.
In case II - There is a 25%
probability that the first child is hypotrichotic.
Answer
f):
The probability that all of their 4 children are normal:
In case I - as seen from the punnet square above, there is a 100% probability, that all 4 children will be normal.
In case II - as seen from punnet square above, the probability can be calculated as -
as one in four children will have
hypotrichosis, the chances of a normal child are 3/4 for each
child.
Therefore the probability that all four will be normal (without
hypotrichosis) will be cumulative
Probability = (3/4) x (3/4) x (3/4) x (3/4) = 81 / 256 =
0.316 OR 31.6% chances that all children will be
normal.