Assignment: General Genetics Problems
Name your submission Lastname_GeneticsProblems and submit it in the
‘Assignments’ link under the ‘Assessments’ tab on the course homepage. Each
question is worth 10 points. The maximum score for this assignment is 100 points.
1. In garden peas, yellow (Y) seed color is dominant to green (y). Because yellow
and green are two different forms of the same gene (seed color), they are alleles.
Use a Punnett square to show a cross between two heterozygous pea plants. What
is the phenotype(s) of the offspring? What is the genotype(s) of the offspring?
Show the cross: _______Yy_ X _Yy________ (what is the genetic makeup of
each parent based on the information given in this question).
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
Y y
Y YY Yy
y
Yy yy
Genotypes: 1 YY: 2 Yy: 1 yy
Phenotypes: ratio of yellow to green = 3:1
2. Assume that white color (W) is dominant over yellow color (w) in corn.
Perform a Punnett square for a cross where pollen from the anthers of a plant that
is heterozygous for color is placed on the pistil of a yellow-fruited plant. What
are the genotypes and phenotypes you would expect to find from this cross?
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
W w
w Ww ww
w Ww ww
Genotypes; 2 Ww : 2 ww
Phenotypes: 50% heterozygous white color, 50% yellow color
White is to Yellow is 1:1
Use the information below to answer questions 3-6.
There may be a number of possible alleles for a given gene within a population. In
a multiple allele system, the dominance relationships between the various alleles
must be considered. One of the more familiar examples of a multiple allelic
system is that of human ABO blood types. The gene involved codes for a protein
on the outside of red bloods cells. Three alleles (IA, IB and i) determine whether
the protein is present or absent and the form of the protein present. The A and B
alleles code for the A and B forms of the protein and are co-dominant to each
other. The O allele (i) codes for no protein and is recessive to both A and B
alleles. This means there are four possible blood types (A, AB, B, and O).
3. Show the possible genotypes and phenotypes of the offspring from a cross
between a homozygous male with type A blood and a homozygous female with
type B blood.
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
IA IA
IA IB
B A B
I I I
IB IA IB IA IB
Genotypes: 4 IA IB
Phenotypes: 100% offspring will be Blood group AB
4. Show the possible genotypes and phenotypes of the offspring from a cross
between a heterozygous male with type A blood and a heterozygous female with
type B blood.
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
IA i
IB IA IB IB i
i IAi ii
Genotypes: 1 IA IB : 1 IAi : 1 IB i : 1ii
Phenotypes: 1 blood group AB (25% offspring); 1 heterozygous blood group
A (25% offspring); 1 heterozygous blood group B (25% offspring);1 blood
group A (25% offspring);
5. If a man with blood type A, one of whose parents had blood type O, marries a
woman with blood type AB, what are the putative genotypes of the offspring?
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
IA i
IA IA IA IAi
IB
IA IB IBi
Genotypes:1 IA IA : 1 IA IB: 1 IAi:1 IBi
6. A couple with the following blood types: the man has type AB and the woman
has type B, discover their child has type O blood. Is it possible that one of these
‘parents’ may not actually be the genetic parent of this child? If so, which one,
and how do you know?
It is possible that one of the ‘parents’ is not genetically related to the child.
This is the paternal parent (Father) who is blood group AB. The only
possible phenotypes that the couple can reproduce if the mother is
homozygous for blood group B are 50% AB and 50% B. If the mother is
heterozygous for blood group B, the couple can only produce 25% AB, 25%
B, 25% A, and 25% blood group B.
7. In horses coat color shows incomplete dominance: the alleles are chestnut color
(Hc) and cremello (Hcr); heterozygous individuals have the phenotype palamino.
What are the predicted phenotypes from a cross between a palamino and cremello
colored horses? What are the genotypes?
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
Hc Hcr
Hcr Hc Hcr Hcr Hcr
Hcr Hc Hcr
Hcr Hcr
Genotypes: 2 Hc Hcr : 2 Hcr Hcr
Phenotypes: Palamino is to Cremello is 1:1
8. Red-green color blindness is inherited as an X-linked recessive (Xc). If a
color-blind man marries a woman who is heterozygous for normal vision, what
would be the expected phenotypes of their children with reference to this
character? In your answer, specify in your phenotype descriptions the gender of
the children. (For example, don’t just say 75% of the children would be
colorblind – you would instead say 100 % of the daughters would be colorblind
and 50% of the sons would be colorblind. Note that this is not a correct answer; it
is just to give you an idea of how to explain the correct phenotypes of the cross.)
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
Xc Y
XC XCXc XCY
Xc Xc Xc XcY
Phenotypes by gender: 25 % of the daughters will be heterozygous for normal
vision, 25 % of the daughters will be color blind, 25% of the sons will have
normal vision, 25 % will be color blind.
9. Hemophilia is another example of a X-linked disease caused when a recessive
allele (Xh) is expressed. If a normal male reproduces with a heterozygous normal
female, what are the expected genotypes and phenotypes? Will any of their
daughters develop hemophilia? As in the previous question, you must also give
the gender of the child in your genotype and phenotype descriptions here.
Complete the Punnett square for that cross.
(The potential alleles which can be provided from one parent go into the top row
and the alleles of the other parent go into the left column; the remaining 4 larger
boxes are for the pairs of alleles the offspring would receive as a result of this
potential mating.)
XH Y
XH XH XHY
XH
Xh XH Xh XhY
Genotypes by gender: 1 XH XH: 1 XH Xh: 1 XHY : 1 XhY
Phenotypes by gender: 50 % of the daughters are normal. 25% sons
hemophiliac, 25% sons normal. None of the daughters will develop
hemophilia although 25% are heterozygous normal.
10. The question below involves what's called a dihybrid cross (all your
previous questions involved monohybrid crosses). A dihybrid cross is where
you follow alleles for 2 different traits together - in the example below one
trait is represented by the letter R (or r) and the other by the letter Y (or y).
So, you need to show adults and offspring with 4 letters (RRYy, for example)
to indicate a proper genotype; and the alleles passed on from each parent
would be pairs of alleles (for the RRYy individual in the example above, they
could possibly pass on the combinations of RY, or Ry to an individual
offspring).
Question: In pea plants, seed shape and seed color are controlled by genes
located on different chromosomes. Seeds may be round (R) or wrinkled (r), with
the allele for round seeds being dominant. Alleles for seed color are yellow and
green, with the green allele (y) recessive to the yellow (Y) allele. If you cross an
individual that is homozygous round and yellow with an individual that is
homozygous for wrinkled and green, what is the genotype of the offspring
resulting from this mating? Provide both the cross and the resulting Punnett
square.
Show the cross: RYRY X _ryry (what is the genetic makeup of each parent
based on the information given in this question - 4 letters for each in this one).
Draw your own Punnett square (remember you will be combining pairs of
letters from the parents to end up with offspring each with 4 letters representing
the inherited alleles). For these types of dihybrid crosses you could end up with
anywhere from 1 to 16 boxes for offspring depending on what you are crossing.
It's not necessarily going to be 4 boxes for offspring this time.
RY RY
ry RrYy RrYy
ry RrYy RrYy
The genotype of the offspring: 4 RrYy