Question

Please answer the below genetics question and show/explain all work.

4. You've recently discovered the sequences for two alleles for the mouse gene XCD, which you have creatively named XCD and XCD2. This gene is believed to be involved in fat metabolism, somehow, but you haven't successfully been able to isolate the protein yet. You've also noticed that your mutant grey coat mice tend to be much leaner and muscular than those with the standard white coat. So for your pilot descriptive experiment with this gene, you'd like to determine if one coat color is more likely to have one allele over another. You're going to explore this hypothesis using a Southern blot. a) Why is a Southern blot the better choice than a Western blot at this point of knowledge about the gene? (1-2 sentences) b) You've already isolated and purified DNA samples from both grey and white mice and have your gel set ups ready to go. What else do you need to do prepare for your Southern blot? c) Your results are presented here for both XCD1 and XCD2 alleles. Based on this pilot information, do you think it's likely that different alleles for the XCD gene could contribute to leanness/body wide energy balae? Explain your answer. (2-3 sentences) XCD1 white XCD2 white grey grey