1) In pea plants, spherical seeds (S) are dominant to dented seeds (s).
In a genetic cross of two plants
that are heterozygous for the seed shape trait, what fraction of the offspring should have spherical
seeds?
2) A genetic cross between two F1-hybrid pea plants having yellow seeds will yield what percent green-
seeded plants in the F2 generation? Yellow seeds are dominant to green.
3) What are the possible blood types of the offspring of a cross between individuals that are type AB and
type O
4) Brown eyes in humans are dominant to blue eyes. A brown-eyed man, whose mother was blue-eyed,
marries a brown-eyed woman whose father had blue [Link] is the probability that this couple will
have a blue-eyed child?
5) If Mendel wanted to determine the genotype of a yellow round pea, what would be the best plant to
cross it?
6) In tomatoes, tall vines (T) are dominant to dwarf vines (t), and red fruit (R) is dominant to yellow fruit
(r).A farmer mates a homozygous tall, red tomato plant (TTRR) with a heterozygous tall, red tomato
plant (TtRr). What is the percent chance that the offspring will be dwarf plants with yellow fruit?
7) In rabbits, white fur (W) is dominant to black (w), and long ears (E) are dominant to short ears (e). A
breeder mates two rabbits that are heterozygous (WwEe) for both traits. What is the chance that the
offspring will be black with long ears?
8) In elephants, poofy tails (T) are dominant to scraggly tails (t) A poofy tailed mother is mated with a
scraggly tailed bull. Since elephants do not have a large amount of offspring, they produced two puffy
tailed calves.
(a) Are these two calves enough proof to say that the mother is a homozygous TT? Or is it still possible
that she could be Tt?
(b) If the two calves were a poofy tailed calf and a scraggly tailed calf, would that be enough proof that
the mother is heterozygous? Is it possible for her to be homozygous TT?
9) In guinea pigs, the allele for short hair is dominant. Two short haired guinea pigs are mated several
times. Out of 100 offspring, 25 of them have long hair. What are the probable genotypes of the parents?
10) In humans there is a disease called Phenylketonuria (PKU)which is caused by a recessive allele.
People with this allele have a defective enzyme and cannot break down the amino acid phenylalanine.
This disease can result in mental retardation or death. Let “E” represent the normal enzyme. Also in
humans in a condition called galactose intolerance or galactosemia, which is also caused by a recessive
allele. Let “G” represent the normal allele for galactose digestion. In both diseases, normal dominates
over recessive. If two adults were heterozygous for both traits (EeGg), what are the chances of having a
child that is completely normal? Has just PKU? Has just galactosemia? Has both diseases?
11) A man with dark (dominant), curly (see problem I.5.) hair marries a woman with light, straight hair.
Their daughter, who happens to have dark hair, marries a man with light, wavy hair. Answer the
following questions about this dark-haired daughter and her family. a. Draw a Punnett’s square for this
marriage, and predict the phenotypic ratio among the offspring of the daughter and her husband. b.
What is the chance that they will have a child with hair just like his or her father’s?
12) If a pure-breeding (homozygous) black (dominant), long-haired (recessive) cat is mated to a
purebreeding Siamese, short-haired cat, and one of their male offspring is mated to one of their female
offspring, what is the chance of producing a Siamese colored, short-haired kitten?
13) Elizabeth is married to John, and they have four children. Elizabeth has a straight nose (recessive)
and is able to roll her tongue (dominant). John is also able to roll his tongue, but he has a convex
(Roman) nose (dominant). Of their four children, Ellen is just like her father, and Dan is just like his
mother. The other children—Anne, who has a convex nose, and Peter, who has a straight nose—are
unable to roll their tongues. Please answer the following questions about this family. a. What are the
genotypes of Elizabeth and John? b. Elizabeth’s father was a straight-nosed roller, while her mother was
a convex-nosed non-roller. What can you figure out about their genotypes? c. John’s father was a
straight-nosed roller, while his mother was a convex-nosed roller. What can you determine about their
genotypes?
14) In dogs, there is an hereditary deafness caused by a recessive gene, “d.” A kennel owner has a male
dog that she wants to use for breeding purposes if possible. The dog can hear, so the owner knows his
genotype is either DD or Dd. If the dog’s genotype is Dd, the owner does not wish to use him for
breeding so that the deafness gene will not be passed on. This can be tested by breeding the dog to a
deaf female (dd). Draw the Punnett squares to illustrate these two possible crosses. In each case, what
percentage/how many of the offspring would be expected to be hearing? deaf? How could you tell the
genotype of this male dog? Also, using Punnett square(s), show how two hearing dogs could produce
deaf offspring.
15) Roan is a coat color found in many animals, including horses, cattle and dogs. It is defined generally
as an even mixture of white and red hair. What offspring are expected from mating a roan bull and a
roan cow?
16) Based on the information in this table, which man could not be the father of the baby? Justify your
answer with a Punnett square
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17) In a species of birds, blue feathers (B) are incompletely dominant
to the gene for white feathers (b). Individuals that are heterozygous
(Bb) have blue-tipped feathers.A bird with blue-tipped feathers is
crossed with a white [Link] is the chance that the offspring
will have blue feathers?
18) In the 1950’s, a young woman sued film star/director Charlie
Chaplin for parental support of her illegitimate child. Charlie
Chaplin’s blood type was already on record as type AB. The mother
of the child had type A and her son had type O blood. Complete a
Punnett square for the possible cross of Charlie and the mother.
The judge ruled in favor of the mother and ordered Charlie Chaplin
to pay child support costs of the child. Was the judge correct in his
decision based on blood typing evidence? Explain why or why not.
*refer to any Punnett squares to support your answer
19) Suppose you are studying the genetics of cardinals ( A bright red songbird ). You notice that some
cardinals have dark eyes, while others have blue eyes. How could you determine which allele is
dominant, dark or blue? (Looking for an experiment here, not an answer to the question of which is
dominant.)
20) Diseases like cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs disease aren’t caused by bacteria or viruses that you can
“catch;” if you have one of these diseases, you inherited it and were born with it. In some cases, we can
use drugs to treat these diseases (that is, reduce their symptoms), but we cannot cure the diseases with
drugs (that is, there will never be a time when the patient can stop taking the drugs and be disease-
free). What would we have to be able to do in order to cure one of these diseases?