If a Black Chicken is mated with a white chicken,and all offspring are BLACK and WHITE,This Shows_______ ?

1 Answer
Apr 28, 2018

This shows that the color of feathers in chicken exhibits the phenomenon of incomplete dominance.

Explanation:

According to Mendel's law of dominance , when two alternative alleles of a trait are present together, one of these is able to dominate over the other and expresses itself in phenotype. This allele is termed dominant allele. The other allele, though present is not able to express itself, is termed recessive allele .

In subsequent experiments to Mendel's work, it was observed that law of dominance is not universal. In Mirabilis jalapa (morning glory) , it was observed that neither of the alleles representing red and white flower color could dominate over the other. When these two alleles were present together in heterozygous plant , the flower color was pink, intermediate between red and white. This phenomenon is termed incomplete dominance .

The color of feather of chicken in question is similar to flower color of Mirabilis jalapa . The black color is represented by allele B and white color by allele W , as neither of these allele can dominate over the other.

On mating a black chicken with white chicken, the offsprings will inherit B allele from black parent and W allele from white parent. The genotype of offsprings will be BW. The color of feathers will be black and white as both alleles express in the phenotype and neiter of tese two alleles is able to dominate over the other.

The feather color in chicken in question exhibits the phenomenon of incomplete dominance.