Final answer:
When a heterozygous father and a homozygous recessive mother reproduce, each offspring has a 50% chance of being heterozygous and a 50% chance of being homozygous recessive, assuming a single trait inheritance pattern.
Step-by-step explanation:
The percentage chance for an offspring to inherit a trait when the father is heterozygous (one dominant and one recessive allele) and the mother is homozygous recessive (two recessive alleles) is based on the principles of Mendelian inheritance. Since the father can pass on either the dominant or the recessive allele with equal probability, and the mother can only pass on the recessive allele, there are two possible outcomes for the offspring: either heterozygous (Aa) or homozygous recessive (aa).
Considering the random segregation of gametes, each child has a 50% chance of inheriting the dominant allele from the father and a 50% chance of inheriting the recessive allele from him. Given that the mother only has recessive alleles to pass on, it follows that there is a 50% chance that the offspring will be heterozygous (carrier, but not expressing the trait), and a 50% chance that the offspring will be homozygous recessive (expressing the trait if it is recessive).
To visualize this, one can draw a Punnett square which will show that the offspring have a genotype ratio of 1:1 for heterozygous to homozygous recessive genotypes, thus reflecting the 50% chance for each genotype.