Question

in a type of chicken, a chicken with a bb genotype results in black chickens and a chicken with a ww genotype results in white chickens. a genotype of bw, however, results in chickens that are speckled both black and white. this is most likely an example of:

○ epistasis
○ codominance
○ complete dominance
○ incomplete dominance

Explanation:

• Epistasis: One gene masks or modifies the expression of another gene. This is not the case here as we are dealing with a single - gene (assuming B and W are alleles of the same gene) situation.
• Codominance: Both alleles in a heterozygous individual are fully expressed. In the case of the chicken, the heterozygous genotype \(BW\) shows both black and white (speckled), which means both \(B\) (black) and \(W\) (white) alleles are fully expressed.
• Complete dominance: One allele completely masks the effect of the other allele. If it were complete dominance, \(BW\) would show either black (if \(B\) is dominant) or white (if \(W\) is dominant), not both.
• Incomplete dominance: The heterozygous phenotype is an intermediate of the two homozygous phenotypes. For example, if \(B\) (black) and \(W\) (white) showed incomplete dominance, \(BW\) might be gray (a blend), not speckled (both black and white).

Answer:

codominance