Answer to Question #236973 in Genetics for rox

Question

In Persian cats, the allele for long hair is dominant. If all the Persian cats are born with

long hair, (A) What are the two possible genotypes of the parents? (B) If the offspring of

the first cross results with 3⁄4 long haired while 1⁄4 are short haired. Can you now determine

the exact parents?

Answer 1

As you can see, out of the 4 possible outcomes, 2 will result in short hair, and 2 in long. So, you'd have a  chance of getting a short haired cat.

Remember: each side of the punnett square represents all possible gametes that each parent can provide. In this case, the long haired cat can only contribute a long haired allele (s), while the short haired cat can contribute either a short haired allele (s) or a long haired allele (S).