Albinism (lack of skin and hair pigmentation) is caused by a recessive autosomal allele. A woman and man, both normally pigmented, have an albino child together. For this trait, what is the genotype of the albino child?

Question

Biology

Gaige Campbell

21 December, 19:26

Albinism (lack of skin and hair pigmentation) is caused by a recessive autosomal allele. A woman and man, both normally pigmented, have an albino child together. For this trait, what is the genotype of the albino child?

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Answers (1)

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Sebastian Berg · Answer 1

Answer: The genotype of the child is aa

Explanation:

Both parents are normally pigmented but the child has albinism. We know that albinism is a recessive trait.

This tells us that the parents were heterozygous for albinism (Aa)

Each parent carried the recessive allele for albinism and passed it down to their child.

The parents are normally pigmented because the dominant allele (normal) masked the recessive albinism allele.