Genetics Unit Study Guide
The questions in the study guide are open-ended on purpose. To fill out this packet you have to use your textbook
(Chapters 12, 13, and 14) and notes and, in doing so, you are studying. Filling this out thoroughly will be one of
the best ways to study for the test. The study guide is arranged in the same order that we covered material in our
class meetings. Use the resources on myMFS to help you as well. The internet can be a helpful resource, too.
1) Draw a simple diagram of the cell cycle and label all the phases.
2) In which phase of the cell cycle is DNA replicated?
3) What’s the difference between Mitosis and Cytokinesis?
4) List the stages of mitosis and write a brief description of what happens in each stage? Would you be able
to recognize the stages of mitosis if you saw pictures of them?
5) What are the major differences in cytokinesis of animal and plant cells?
6) What are somatic cells? What are gametes?
7) Why do you think it’s important that cells have a cell cycle control system? What does this system do?
8) What is the process of meiosis and why is it so important in an evolutionary sense? That is, what happens
to the DNA in this process that’s different from mitosis?
9) Draw a diagram of a cell that has three pairs of chromosomes in its 2n stage going through meiosis.
10)How do asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction differ? What are the pros and cons of each?
11)What do the terms haploid and diploid mean? 2n and n?
12)What special process happens in Prophase I of meiosis? Why is this process so important?
13)The diploid number for fruit flies is 8, and the diploid number for grasshoppers is 46. If no crossing over
took place, would the genetic variation among offspring from a given pair of parents be greater in fruit
flies or grasshoppers? Explain.
14)What are characters? What are traits? Give a few examples from Mendel’s pea plants.
15)What did Mendel mean by true-breeding varieties? What is meant by hybridization?
16)What is the Law of Segregation?
17)What does the word allele mean? What are dominant alleles? What are recessive alleles?
18)Green pods are dominant to yellow pods in pea plants. How would you write the genotype of a
heterozygous individual for pod color?
19)Complete a Punnett Square that shows a cross between two parents that are both heterozygous for pod
color (a monohybrid cross). What is the phenotypic ratio of the offspring? What is the genotypic ratio?
20)What is a testcross useful for? How does it work? No need to draw Punnett Squares, just explain.
21)What is the Law of Independent Assortment?
22)Draw out a Punnett Square for a self pollinating pea plant that is heterozygous for Pod Shape (Inflated is
dominant to Constricted) and heterozygous for Stem Length (Tall is dominant to Dwarf). Suppose you
had 300 offspring from this cross. What percentage of the offspring will be Constricted and Dwarf?
23)Why is it unwieldy to draw a Punnett Square for a triple character cross?
24)Let’s say we have two parent plants with the following genotypes: ppYyRr X Ppyyrr. What fraction of the
offspring from this cross are predicted to exhibit the dominant phenotypes of at least two characters?
Please apply the multiplication rule and addition rule here, do not draw out a Punnett Square.
25)Explain the difference between complete dominance, incomplete dominance, and codominance. Give an
example of each.
26)Why are human blood groups an example of multiple alleles? How many alleles of this character does any
given human being carry? Draw out the genotypes and phenotypes of the human ABO blood groups.
What are the dominance relationships between the different alleles?
27)What is epistasis? In an epistatic gene situation, where one gene controls the expression of another gene,
what is the resulting phenotypic ratio if we’re talking about a dihybrid cross of a fur color gene (black is
dominant, brown is recessive) and an epistatic gene that inhibits any pigment from being deposited?
28)What are two good examples, in humans, of polygenic inheritance? What’s different about this situation
than all the rest we’ve talked about?