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You have a square the is split into fourths. 2 and 2 in bottom. It looks like a window. On top of the two top squares you put the alleles of the first parent. On the left you put the to alleles of the other parent. And you basically get one allele from each parent and put it in the square and it gives you the probably outcomes of the offspring.

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14y ago
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15y ago

Punnett squares help decipher the chances of an offspring having a certain trait that one of the parents have. For instance, if the parent has the depression gene, which is dominant, a punnet squre can give you an idea of the chances of what your child may have... will it be a dominate depression gene or a mild form, etc. Same goes with hair colour, eye colour, etc. Mind you, it is not an exact science, something time repressive gene can show before the dominant one does.

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12y ago

Punnett squares determine the ratio or percentage of one or more particular phenotypes (physical appearances) occurring in the offspring after the mating of two different parents. Punnett squares are best used if a F1 dam is mated with an F1 sire, or if a purebred sire is mated with an F1 dam or vice versa, or if an F1 sire is mated with an F2 dam or vice versa, along with many other possibilities and variations. These matings give the possibilities of homozygous or heterozygous traits occurring in an offspring if parents are homo- or heterozygous for one or more traits. Punnett squares are not used in purebreeding operations because the outcomes are too predictable; they should only be limited to commercial or crossbreeding operations.

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11y ago

A punnet square can assist in genetics research in that one can clearly outline all probability for a trait to be passed on to their offspring. For example, let's say the the allele for brown hair is B. One parent has the dominant B, and a recessive b for black hair so the dominant brown cancels the recessive black so the parent has brown hair. The second parent has two recessive genes, bb so this parent has black hair. to see what the offspring can be, we use a punnet square. The possibilities are made by pairing all letters of one allele with that of another parent, and thus the usefulness becomes clear, the possibilities are: 25%Bb, and 75%bb. if the second parent had been Bb, the it would be 50/50.

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10y ago

One may like to predict the outcome of a breeding experiment such as with their own offspring or even animals. A Punnett square can be used for this purpose. It is a simple diagram where one would summarise every combination, giving them a correct probability of the outcome.

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13y ago

Geneticists use the Punnett square to predict the outcome of a particular breeding experiment. They predict the potential genotypes of the offspring of two parents with known genotypes.

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14y ago

To predict and compare the genetic variations that will result from a cross.

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12y ago

to show the probablities of an offspring to inherit a certain pair of alleles from its parents

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12y ago

It is used to determine the probability of the two parents offspring having a certain trait(s).

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Q: Why are Punnett squares useful in genetics?
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