Question

You examine a worm that has two genders: males that produce sperm and
hermaphrodites that produce both sperm and eggs. The diploid adult has four
homologous pairs of chromosomes that undergo very little recombination. Given
a choice, the hermaphrodites prefer to mate with males, but just to annoy the
worm, you pluck a hermaphrodite out of the wild and fertilize its eggs with its
own sperm. Assuming that all the resulting offspring are viable, what fraction do
you expect to be genetically identical to the parent worm? Assume that each
chromosome in the original hermaphrodite is genetically distinct from its
homolog.

(a) all
(b) none
(c) 1/16
(d) 1/256

Answer 1

Answer:

Option (c).

Explanation:

Hermaphrodites may be defined as the organism that contains both the sperm and eggs in the same individual. Generally, worms and simple body organisms are hermaphrodites.

The worm sperm and eggs are fertilized with each other and all the resulting offspring are living. Almost,1/16 individual are genetically identical to the parent worm as the homologous chromosome are distinct from each other in hermaphrodite.

Thus, the correct answer is option (c).