Tom is going to buy two hamsters. He wants to breed them and sell the baby hamsters to a local pet store. The store owner tells him that his customers prefer dark brown hamsters with white bellies, long fur, black eyes, and long tails. Tom found a female hamster with all of those characteristics. Which male hamster should Tom buy in order to have the BEST chance of breeding baby hamsters with MOST of those characteristics?

Question is incomplete. Complete question has been attached.

d. X

Explanation:

According to the given data, Tom is looking for five desirable traits in his hamsters. These traits are dark brown color, white bellies, long fur, black eyes and long tails. He should choose the male which can result in maximum number of the given traits.

We do not have any knowledge about the mode of inheritance of these traits ( dominant, recessive, multiple gene etc. ). So the decision should be eyeballed according to the phenotype present in the male. The male which has maximum number of desirable phenotypes should be mated with the female to increase the chances of bringing the desirable alleles together and thus getting the progeny with the same traits.

Out of the four given options Hamster W, Y and Z have 3 desirable traits whereas Hamster X has four desirable traits ( dark brown fur, white belly, long fur and long tail ). Hence, Tom should buy Hamster X in order to have best chance of breeding baby hamsters with most of the desirable traits.

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