A female with a paternal set of one orange and one long gene chromosome and a maternal set comprised of one blue and one short gene chromosome is expected to produce which of the following types of eggs after meiosis?A) All eggs will have maternal types of gene combinations.B) All eggs will have paternal types of gene combinations.C) Half the eggs will have maternal and half will have paternal combinations.D) Each egg has a one-fourth chance of having either blue long, blue short, orange long, or orange short combinations.E) Each egg has a three-fourths chance of having blue long, one-fourth blue short, three-fourths orange long, or one-fourth orange short combinations.

The female individual looked at in this question involves two distinct genes coding for color and length. According to the question, the female contains in her genome, orange and blue alleles on one locus and long and short alleles on another locus (i.e. OoLl, where gene O is for color and gene L is for lenght).

The female will undergo meiosis, in which the alleles of each gene will separate into gametes independently of one another (according to Mendel's law of independent assortment) i.e. each gamete will equally likely contain one maternal and paternal allele of each gene.

Due to a unique phenomenon called CROSSING-OVER, which occurs in the prophase stage of meiosis I, four genetically different gametes can be produced. The alleles will be combined in the gametes (eggs) in a way that each egg is likely to contain 1/4 probability of having a blue long (oL), orange long (OL), orange short (Ol), and blue short (ol). This combination is only possible if the alleles of each gene assort independently.