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Humanoids on the newly explored planet Brin (in a hypothetical galaxy in ~50 years from the present) have a gene structure similar to our own, but many very different plants and animals.
-One species of a small birdlike animal has an extremely variable tail length, which is a highly polymorphic trait. Geneticists have come to realize that there are eight separate genes for tail length per haploid genome, with each gene having two alleles. One allele for each gene (a, b, and so on)increases the length by 1 cm, whereas the other allele (a₂, b₂, and so on)increases it by 0.5 cm. One bird was analyzed and found to have the following genotype: a₁a₁b₂b₂c₁c₂d₁d₂e₂e₂f₁f₂g₁g₁h₁h₂
What is the length of its tail?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The length of the tail can be calculated by adding the length contributed by each allele of the eight genes.

a₁a₁: 1 cm
b₂b₂: 0.5 cm
c₁c₂: 1.5 cm (c₁ contributes 1 cm and c₂ contributes 0.5 cm)
d₁d₂: 1.5 cm (d₁ contributes 1 cm and d₂ contributes 0.5 cm)
e₂e₂: 1 cm
f₁f₂: 1.5 cm (f₁ contributes 1 cm and f₂ contributes 0.5 cm)
g₁g₁: 1 cm
h₁h₂: 1.5 cm (h₁ contributes 1 cm and h₂ contributes 0.5 cm)

Adding all of these up, we get:

1 + 0.5 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 1 + 1.5 + 1 + 1.5 = 12 cm

Therefore, the length of the bird's tail is 12 cm.

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