In ants, males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid. Females develop f

Question

In ants, males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid. Females develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid. Long antennae (A) are dominant over short antennae (a), and the ability to produce venomous formic acid stings (F) is dominant over non-venomous stings (f). If a doubly heterozygous queen with long antennae and venomous stinging capability founds a new hive after being fertilized by a long antennaed and non-venomous male,

What phenotypes will be seen in the new colony, and what will be their relative frequency?
If female offspring of the queen mate with male offspring of the queen and then found new hives, what proportion of the new hives will contain some short antennaed, venomous males?

Explanation / Answer

Genotype of male ant: Af (since male ants are haploid)

Genotype of queen ant: AaFf

Af………………………X…………………………..AaFf

Gametes:…..Af……………………………………AF, Af, aF, af

Progeny:

Four types of male ants will be seen in the colony, they are directly developed from unfertilized eggs. (Relative frequency of each type is 0.25)

1-   AF – long antenna & venomous

2-   Af – long antennae & non-venomous

3-   aF- short antenna & venomous

4-   af- short antennae & non-venomous

Two types of female ants will be seen, they are developed from fertilized eggs. (Relative frequency of each type is 0.50)

1-   AAFf & AaFf : long antennae & venomous

2-   AAff & Aaff : long antennae & non-venomous

(PART- B):

There are 4 genotypes of female ants (AAFf, AAff, AaFf, Aaff). The male offsprings will develop from the unfertilized eggs of these female ants; the male parent ant has no role in the development of male progenies.

Now, out of these four types of female ants, only AaFf can produce aF gametes/ eggs that can develop into short antennae-venomous male ants (aF).
Hence the proportion of hives that will contain short antennae-venomous male ants (aF) is ¼ or 25% .

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