Question

Translocation mutations can happen to entire chromosomes – as happened in the ancestral species of the human lineage, giving us one less chromosome pair than our closest extant primate relatives (the chimps, gorillas, and orangutans). A far more extreme example of chromosome-number reduction due to translocations and fusions discussed in your textbook is ________.

a. the seedless-watermelon cultivar

b. the white Dutch rabbit species, whose members were entirely black before the occurrence of multiple translocation mutations

c. the Indian muntjac deer, which only has 2 remaining pairs of autosomes, compared to 22 in the Chinese muntjac

d. Nicotiana tabacum, in which translocations reduced the number of chromosomes by half while doubling the nicotine content

Answer 1

a. the seedless watermelon cultivar

In order to produce seedless watermelon we use diploid and tetraploid parents to obtain sterile triploid seedless watermelon. as in the definition of fusion and translocation a hybrid gene is produced from two independant genes as a result of translocation. Indian muntjac deer have diploid 7 and 6 chromosome in male and female respectively compared to 46 chromosomes in chinese muntjac deer. In Nicotiana tabacum, nicotine content is doubled with doubling chromosome technique. White dutch rabbits are produced by cross breeding of black dutch rabbits.