Robert and Megan are brother and sister, and both have type O blood. They know that their mother has type A blood, but they don’t know their father’s blood type. Using what they know about their own blood types and their mother’s, they know that their father’s blood type

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Question restatement: Robert and Megan are brother and sister with type O blood. Their mother has type A blood. They do not know their father’s blood type. Based on what they know about their own blood types and their mother’s, they conclude that their father’s blood type could be what?

Option provided: "could be A or O."

Analysis of each option:
- Option: could be A or O.
  - Why this might be tempting: Because we know the children are type O, and the mother is type A; one might think the father could be either A or O depending on unseen genotypes, so this option appears to cover two possibilities.
  - Why this is incorrect: Blood type inheritance follows Mendelian patterns with ABO alleles. If the mother is type A, her genotype is either AA or AO. To have a child with type O, the child must receive an O allele from each parent. If the mother were AA, she could only pass A, never O, making OO (type O) impossible regardless of the father’s type. Therefore, mother cannot be AA if the children are type O. If the mother is AO, she can pass either A or O. For a child to be type O, the father must pass an O allele. That means the father must have at least one O allele, i.e., his genotype could be OO or AO. However, a father with type A (genotype AA or AO) could pass A, but not necessarily O unless he is AO. The key takeaway is that to yield type O offspring from a mother who is AO, the father must contribute O, which restricts his possible blood types to O or AO (depending on his genotype). In the simplest reading, the only guaranteed requirement to produce type O children in this scenario is an O allele from both parents; therefore, concluding that the father’s blood type could be A is not supported unless we know the father’s genotype as AO with him passing O. Since the option lumps “A” and “O” together and ignores the crucial constraint that the mother must be AO (not AA) for type O offspring to be possible, the blanket “A or O” is inaccurate as a definitive statement. More precisely, given two type O children, the father must provide an O allele, and the mother must be AO, which makes the father’s type either O (OO) or AO (passing O). This does not reliably allow for type A as a necessary possibility in all interpretations, so the statement is misleading.

Summary of rationale:
- If the mother were AA, type O children would be impossible, so mother must be AO.
- If the mother is AO and the children are OO, the father must contribute O, so the father’s genotype must include an O allele (OO or AO).
- Therefore, the father’s observable blood type could be O or could be A (if he is AO and passes O), but this depends on his genotype. However, simply stating father could be A or O without clarifying genotype is incomplete and potentially misleading, because a father who is type A (AA) cannot pass an O allele and cannot have OO offspring with an AO mother. The given option does not capture these nuances clearly and is therefore not a robust conclusion.

Inference step-by-step:
- Determine possible mother genotype from type A: either AA or AO.
- Since the children are type O, the mother must pass an O allele, so the mother cannot be AA; she must be AO.
- For a child to be type O, the father must pass an O allele as well; therefore, the father must have at least one O allele, i.e., genotype OO or AO.
- Consequently, the father’s observable blood type could be O (if OO) or A or O (if AO), but not strictly restricted to A or O without specifying genotype; the blanket claim in the option is overly broad and can be misleading given the genotype-dependent nuances.

PSYB64H3 S All Sections Test Your Mettle: Are You Ready for Midterm 2?

Robert and Megan are brother and sister, and both have type O blood. They know that their mother has type A blood, but they don’t know their father’s blood type. Using what they know about their own blood types and their mother’s, they know that their father’s blood type

View Explanation

Log in for full answers

Similar Questions

If a mother's blood type is A and the father's blood type is O, their offspring's blood type will be:

Question at position 8 A child knows that his paternal parent has blood type A and his maternal parent has blood type B. What are all the possible phenotypes of the child?(Check all that apply.)ABABOBlackTom题目解析

Question at position 6 A many with type A blood produces offspring with a woman with type O blood. What are all the possible blood types of their children? (Check all that apply.)ABABOBlackTom题目解析

What are the possible blood types of potential offspring between an individual that has type O blood and an individual that has type AB blood? E1.1024

Jill is A positive and her mom is O negative. She marries Jack who is O negative. What's the chance in percent of having a child who is O positive?

In a consumer society, many adults channel creativity into buying things

Economic stress and unpredictable times have resulted in a booming industry for self-help products

More Practical Tools for Students Powered by AI Study Helper

Homework AI Solver

Stylized AI Paper Writer

Plagiarism Checker Assistant

Citation AI Academic Writing Tool

In-Class Translation Assistant

AI Note Generator

AI Quiz Answers

Past Exam Questions from University Test Bank

Smart Practice Assistant

Adaptive Practice

Making Your Study Simpler