How does genetics use the principles of probability?
1 Answer
Genetics use probability to predict inheritance
Explanation:
We can use the basics of probability to determine the likelihood an offspring will express a trait. One way to do this is using punnet squares, where the genotype for each parent is placed on the left side and the top of the square, as seen below.
)
We would then fill in the remaining squares by taking one allele/contribution from the corresponding row and the second allele/contribution from the corresponding column. We will end up with two letters in each of the cells that are empty in the above example.
This would be our result:
)
We have four squares and four options. However, because all four of our options are the same (YG), the chance of having an offspring with the YG phenotype is 100%.
Here is another example of a genetics probability question on Socratic.
