Albinism Genetics: Predicting Offspring Percentages from Carrier Cross

Albinism is a recessive trait, meaning that an individual must have two copies of the albino gene in order to express the albino phenotype. Carriers for albinism have only one copy of the albino gene and one copy of the normal gene, and therefore do not express the albino phenotype.

When two carriers for albinism are crossed, the following offspring genotypes and phenotypes are possible:

* 25% homozygous normal (two normal genes) - normal phenotype

* 50% heterozygous carriers (one normal gene and one albino gene) - normal phenotype

* 25% homozygous albino (two albino genes) - albino phenotype

Therefore, we would expect 25% of the offspring from a cross between two carriers for albinism to be albino.