Question

The chromosome pictured below are from a fruit fly that is heterozygous for two traits. How many kinds of gametes could form if this were male? A female? Explain how crossing over could affect the gametes that result.

Answer 1

i) I think four gametes are possible in either  a male or a female. That is; GY, gY, Gy, and gy.This is because both traits are heterozygous which means for a certain gene there are two different alleles. While in the case of homozygous there would only be one type of gametes since for a given gene there are two similar alleles.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ii) I think crossing over or recombination could cause the alleles that are linked with the wing color and the eye color genes to be exchanged between the two chromosomes in a pair, thus, resulting to new combinations of alleles. The final result would then be an increase in possible genetic variation.