belgian blue

Question 1

what type of allele is the double muscle genotype?

Answer 1

recessive

Question 2

why are belgian blues inbreed?

Answer 2

to preserve the recessive double muscle mutation in the myostatin gene

Question 3

how are belgian blue cows breed?

Answer 3

they are bred with the other mutated cows through artificial insemination

Question 4

what type of breeding is done to maintain the mutation?

Answer 4

inbreeding

Question 5

why do belgian blues have double muscles?

Answer 5

a mutation in the myostatin gene which doubles muscle fibres

Question 6

what is the phenotype of belgian blues?

Answer 6

they produce double muscle

Question 7

what is a phenotype?

Answer 7

an expressed characteristic (which stems from a genotype)

Question 8

why are belgian blues important?

Answer 8

they produce the highest meat yield in comparison to other cows (up to 80%)

Question 9

Who is a descendant of the belgian blue?

Answer 9

Auroch and cattle cows

Question 10

what is the belgian blue’s generic name ?

Answer 10

Bos Taurus

Question 11

what alleles do cows need to have to have this mutation?

Answer 11

homozygous recessive to express

Question 12

what alleles do cows need to be a carrier of this mutation?

Answer 12

heterozygous

Question 13

what is an allele?

Answer 13

a specific variant form of a gene (e.g having double muscle and not)

Question 14

what can punnet squares do?

Answer 14

show the probability of offspring inheriting this mutation

Question 15

if a belgian blue has offspring with a cow that doesn’t have this mutation nor carry it, what is the probability their offspring will have it?

Answer 15

0%

Question 16

if a belgian blue mates with a carrier of this genetic mutation, what is the probability of their offspring expressing this phenotype?

Answer 16

50%

Question 17

how can a farmer ensure two cows will 100% produce offspring with double muscle?

Answer 17

if both cows are homozygous recessive

Question 18

what is a mutation?

Answer 18

a change in bases in the dna and genome sequencing that changes the amino acid coded

Question 19

how can genome analysis help ensure offspring all have double muscles?

Answer 19

by looking at an individual genome, it can track the myostatin gene and see if the mutation is present and both alleles are recessive.

Question 20

what impacts can inbreeding have?

Answer 20

they can result in more susceptibility to diseases due to the increased likely-hood of offspring inheriting identical copies of mutated genes and from both parental cells