Problem Set 2
Allelic Interaction
1. Cystic fibrosis is caused by a recessive lethal gene and can be detected by an
excess concentration of chloride in sweat. If a sweat test reveals a man to be
heterozygous and his wife to be homozygous normal, what are the chances that
their children will have the disease? Could any of their grandchildren have the
disease?
2. In humans, sickle-cell anemia is caused by a recessive lethal allele Hb s;
individuals who are HbaHbs have sickle-cell trait, but are healthy.
a. What is the probability of two heterozygous individuals giving birth to a normal
child?
b. What is the probability of two heterozygous individuals giving birth to a child with
sickle-cell anemia?
c. If a normal HbaHba individual receives a blood transfusion from a Hb aHbs
individual (heterozygous for sickle cell) what are the chances that the Hb aHba man
and his HbaHba wife will have HbaHbs children?
3. It has long been known in the field of human genetics that wavy hair is the
expression of a heterozygous genotype in which the allele for straight hair is paired
with the allele for curly hair. Lucinda Lovelee married Larry Legg. Both of these
charmers have wavy hair. What is the probability that their offspring, the littlest
Legg, will have:
a. wavy hair?
b. curly hair?
c. straight hair?
4. Crossing a black cat with a tan cat produces a tabby cat (combination of black
and tan).
a. If you cross a tan cat with a tabby cat, what are the phenotypes of the offspring?
b. If you wanted all tabby cats, what color cats would you want to breed?
5. Two women gave birth to girls in the same hospital at the same time. The nurses
think they may have accidentally switched the babies' name tags and given the
babies to the wrong parents. One baby, Jane, is type O. The other baby, Mary, is
blood type A. The father in one set of parents, the Reds, is blood type A, and the
mother is type B. The father in the other set of parents, the Greens, is blood type
AB, and the mother is type O. Figure out which baby belongs to which parents.
Show your work and reasoning
6. In radishes, the gene that controls color exhibits incomplete dominance. Pure-
breeding red radishes crossed with pure-breeding white radishes make purple
radishes. What are the genotypic and phenotypic ratios when you cross a purple
radish with a white radish?
7. Mexican hairless dogs have little hair and a few teeth. When a Mexican hairless is
mated to another breed of dog, about half of the puppies are hairless. When two
Mexican hairless dogs are mated to each other, about 1/3 of the surviving puppies
have hair, and about 2/3 of the surviving puppies are hairless. However, about two
out of eight puppies from this type of cross are born grossly deformed and do not
survive. Explain this pattern of inheritance.
8. In rabbits, an allelic series helps to determine coat color:C (full color), c ch
(chinchilla, gray color), c h (Himalayan, white with black extremities), and c (albino,
all-white). The C allele is dominant over all others, c ch is dominant over c h and c, c
h is dominant over c, and c is recessive to all the other alleles. This dominance
hierarchy can be summarized as C > c ch > c h > c. The rabbits in the following list
are crossed and produce the progeny shown. Give the genotypes of the parents for
each cross:
Phenotypes parents Phenotypes of offspring
a. full color × albino 1/2 full color, 1/2 albino
b. Himalayan × albino 1/2 Himalayan, 1/2 albino
c. full color × albino 1/2 full color, 1/2 chinchilla
d. full color × Himalayan 1/2 full color, 1/4 Himalayan,1/4 albino
e. full color × full color 3/4 full color, 1/4 albino