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1. in a cross between a ruby-eyed female fruit fly and wild-type eyed male, what percent of the female offspring will have ruby eyes? (ruby eyes are x-linked, recessive).

1 Answer

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In fruit flies, the gene for eye color is located on the X chromosome and is sex-linked. Ruby eyes are a recessive trait, which means that a female fly must inherit two copies of the ruby-eye allele (one from each parent) to express the phenotype, while a male fly only needs one copy.

In a cross between a ruby-eyed female fruit fly (X^rX^r) and a wild-type eyed male (X^RY), all of the female offspring will inherit one X chromosome from the mother (X^r or X^R) and one X chromosome from the father (X^R).

If the female offspring inherit an X^R chromosome from the father, they will be wild-type eyed, regardless of the allele inherited from the mother.

However, if the female offspring inherit an X^r chromosome from the father, they will only have ruby eyes if they also inherit an X^r chromosome from the mother. The probability of inheriting an X^r chromosome from the mother is 1/2.

Therefore, 50% of the female offspring will inherit an X^r chromosome from the mother, and of these, 100% will have ruby eyes. So, 50% of the female offspring will have ruby eyes.

In summary, the percentage of the female offspring that will have ruby eyes is 50%.
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User Marc Friedman
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