Chapter 8, Problem 23CONQ

A cytogeneticist has collected tissue samples from members of a certain butterfly species. Some of the butterflies were located in Canada, and others were found in Mexico. Through karyotyping, the cytogeneticist discovered that chromosome 5 of the Canadian butterflies had a large inversion compared with chromosome 5 of the Mexican butterflies. The Canadian butterflies were inversion homozygotes, whereas the Mexican butterflies had two normal copies of chromosome 5.

A. Explain whether a mating between Canadian and Mexican butterflies would produce phenotypically normal offspring.

B. Explain whether the offspring of a cross between Canadian and Mexican butterflies would be fertile.