You and your spouse are expecting your first baby and are wondering who your baby is going to look like. You have curly, dark hair (homozygous), while your spouse has light-colored straight hair. The phenotype for your child will be

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dominant phenotype for hair texture is curly, so if the mother is homozygous for curly hair, then the child will inherit one curly hair allele from the mother. Hair color is determined by multiple genes and is more complex, but since the father has light-colored straight hair, it is possible that the child could inherit a recessive allele for light hair color from both parents, resulting in lighter colored hair. However, the question specifically asks for the phenotype, or outward appearance, which would be curly, dark hair since the curly hair allele is dominant and the mother is homozygous for it.

You and Your Spouse Are Expecting Your First Baby and Are