Name ___________________________________ Date_______________ Block ________

Genetics Tak e-H om e Assignm ent _____/80 = _____

This assignment is to be completed independently . You may use your notes,

textbook and class worksheets but you may not ask for assistance of use the
internet. This will be worth a test grade! Each question is worth 10 points.
Write answers neatly on your own paper and turn in stapled to this sheet.

I, _____________________________, will work on this assignment

independently and follow the rules liste d above.

Signature: ___________ _______ ________________________ ___

To receive maximum points on each problem/question: Justify your answers using

diagrams and/or written explanations. Use appropriate genetics terminology and
answer questions thoroughly! Address ALL components of each question.

1. In cats, long hair is recessive to short hair. A true-breeding (homozygous) short-haired male is
mated to a long-haired female. What will their kittens look like? KEY: S – short hair, s – long hair.

All the kittens will have short hair. Since dad is SS and mom is ss, all the kids will be Ss, one short
hair allele and one long hair. Short is dominant over long so their phenotype (appearance) will be
short hair.

2. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have six children. Three of them have attached earlobes (recessive) like their
father, and the other three have free earlobes like their mother. What are the genotypes of Mr. and
Mrs. Jones and of their numerous offspring? KEY: F – free earlobes. f – attached earlobes.

Mr. Jones has to be ff since he has the recessive phenotype of attached earlobes. Mrs. Jones has
free earlobes so she could be FF or Ff. We know she is Ff because she has some attached earlobe
(ff) children. The only way that is possible is if both parents carry a “f” allele. Mr. Jones is ff, Mrs.
Jones is Ff, their 3 attached earlobe children are ff and the 3 free earlobe kids are Ff (have to have a
“f” because dad is ff.

3. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson both have tightly curled hair. (The hair gene shows incomplete
dominance. There are two alleles, curly and straight. The heterozygote has wavy hair.) The
Andersons have a child with wavy hair. Mr. Anderson accuses Mrs. Anderson of being unfaithful
to him. Is he necessarily justified? Why or why not? KEY: C – curly, S – straight.

Mr. Jones is justified. Both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson has CC genotypes because they have curly
have. Wavy hair is produced by a CS genotype. Since neither parent has an “S” allele they cannot
produce a CS wavy haired kid. Mrs. Anderson had an affair with either a straight-haired (SS) or
wavy haired (CS) man.
Name ___________________________________ Date_______________ Block ________
4. Earl has normal color vision, while his wife Erma is colorblind. . Colorblindness is an X-linked
trait, and the normal allele is dominant to the colorblindness allele. If they have a large family, in
what ways should the colorblindness trait affect their children? KEY: XB – normal vision, Xb-
colorblind.

If they have a large family, ½ of their children will be colorblind boys and ½ of their children will be
girls who carry the colorblindness gene. Earl’s genotype is XBY and Erma’s genotype is XbXb.
Every boy they have will get the Y from dad and one of mom’s colorblindness alleles making them
colorblind. Every girl they have will get a normal vision allele from dad (all he has to give) and one
of mom’s colorblindness alleles making them carriers who still have a normal vision phenotype.

5. This is a DIHYBRID PROBLEM. In cats, black color is dominant to a special, temperature-

sensitive albino gene which produces cats with dark legs, faces and tails (Siamese cats, in case you
don’t recognize it). If a pure-breeding (homozygous) black (dominant), long-haired (recessive) cat
is mated to a pure-breeding 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? KEY – B – black, b – Siamese, S – short hair, s – long hair.

The chance of them producing a Siamese-colored short-haired kitten is 3 out of 16. The possible
Siamese-short-haired are starred in the Punnett Square.

The original parents were BBss and bbSS. There offspring would all be BbSs. If two of these
offspring are mated the cross would be BbSs X BbSs. I used FOIL (first, outer, inner, last) to
determine the possible gametes that each parent to produce. F – BS, O- Bs, I – bS, L – bs.

BS Bs bS bs
BS BBSS BBSs BbSS BbSs
Bs BBSs BBss BbSs Bbss
bS BbSS BbSs **bbSS **bbSs
bs BbSs Bbss **bbSs bbss

6. The pedigree below traces the inheritance of alkaptonuria, a biochemical disorder. Affected
individuals, indicated here by the filled-in circles and squares, are unable to break down a
substance called alkapton, which colors the urine and stains body tissues. KEY – Use A/a.
a. Does alkaptonuria appear to be caused by a dominant or recessive allele?
b. Fill in the genotypes of the individuals whose genotypes you know.
c. What genotypes are possible for each of the other individuals?
Name ___________________________________ Date_______________ Block ________

a. Alkaptonuria appears to be caused by a recessive allele because Ann and Michael do not have
the disorder but their child, Carla, does. Ann and Michael must be carrying the recessive allele but
it is masked by the dominant one.

b. Arlene, Tom, Wilma and Carla all have to be “aa” because they have a recessive disorder. Ann
and Michael are “Aa” because they have a daughter with the disorder. George is Aa for the same
reason. Sam, Daniel and Alan are all Aa because they have a parent with the disorder (aa).

C. Sandra, Tina and Christopher can be AA or Aa. We don’t have enough information to know
which.

7. A woman has a daughter. There are three men whom she claims might have been the father of
the child. The judge in the paternity court orders that all three men, the child, and the mother have
blood tests. The results are: mother, Type A; Daughter, Type O; Man #1, Type AB; Man #2,
Type B; Man #3, Type O. The mother claims that this proves that Man #3 must be the little girl’s
father.
a. Is the mother correct? Why or why not?
b. The judge isn’t satisfied, so he asks for the medical records of the people involved.
He discovers that the little girl is colorblind. Men #’s 1 and 2 are also colorblind;
Man #3 has normal color vision, as does the mother. (NOTE: Colorblindness is X-
linked and recessive.) Assuming that one of these three men must be the father, can
you now determine which of the three it is?

a. Mom is not correct because either Man #2 or Man #3 could be the father. Mom has to be IAi to
have a Type O daughter (ii). So Dad has to carry at least one “i” allele. Man #2 could be IBi and
still produce this kid.
b. Yes, Man #2 has to be the father. A girl with colorblindness has to have two (2) colorblindness
alleles her father must be colorblind and mom must at least be a carrier for the trait. Man #3 has
normal vision so he can’t be the father leaving Man #2 as the only possibility.

8. Another woman has the same problem. Her blood type is Type A, her child’s is Type B. She
again has three candidates for fatherhood. Their blood types are: Man #1, Type B; Man #2, Type
AB; Man #3, Type O. Based on blood types, the mother says it must have been #1.
a. Do you agree? Why or why not?
b. This child, a son this time, is also colorblind. The only one of the men in question to
share this characteristic is #2. The mother is not colorblind. Can you now
determine who the father of the little boy is, assuming it must be one of these men?
Explain your answer. Remember that colorblindness is an X-linked recessive trait.

a. Again, mom isn’t correct. She has to be IAi to produce a Type B kid. Her kid must be IBi.
The kid received a the B allele from Dad and the i from mom. Man #1 and Man #2 both
carry a B allele so they are both possible fathers.
Name ___________________________________ Date_______________ Block ________
b. The colorblindness actually doesn’t help in this situation. Boys always get the Y
chromosome from their fathers so their X chromosome carrying the colorblindness allele
always come from mom. Man #1 and Man #2 could still both be the father.

BONUS QU ESTIO NS O N NEXT P AGE!

I’m n ot expl ainin g t he bonus questions – j ust p rov idin g the

correct ans wer. I f you want a more d etailed ex planation –
see Mrs. Brook!

BONUS QU ESTIO NS
(1) You are a scientist performing the first analysis of the genetic basis for the inheritance of flower color in a
certain species of wildflower. You begin your investigation by observing that there are four different flower
colors in the local wild population: white, red, blue and purple. Your first assumption (hypothesis) is that
you are looking at the effects of a single gene, so operate under that assumption. You collect a variety of
samples of all colors, take them back to your greenhouse, and begin making crosses. Remember, you are
crossing members of a wild population—you have no idea whether any of your plants are homozygous or
heterozygous. Here are the various results you observe:

White X White All offspring always produce white flowers.

In some matings, all offspring produce red flowers.
Red X Red In other matings, some of the offspring produce red flowers, some white,
with red flowering offspring outnumbering white flowering offspring.
In some matings, all offspring produce blue flowers..
Blue X Blue In other matings, some of the offspring produce blue flowers, some white
with blue flowering offspring outnumbering white flowering offspring.
Always produces a mixture of red, blue and purple flowering offspring,
Purple X Purple
with purple most frequent, followed by red and blue in roughly equal numbers,
In some matings, all offspring produce red flowers.
White X Red In other matings, some of the offspring produce red flowers, some white.
Red and white occur in roughly equal numbers..
In some matings, all offspring produce blue flowers.
White X Blue In other matings, some of the offspring produce blue flowers, some white.
Blue and white occur in roughly equal numbers..
Always produces roughly equal numbers of blue flowering offspring
White X Purple
and red flowering offspring.
Always produces purple offspring, but in some matings also produces
Red X Blue
red and/or blue offspring, and/or white offspring
Red X Purple Always produces red and purple offspring, sometimes mixed with blue.

Blue X Purple Always produces blue and purple offspring, sometimes mixed with red.

a. How many alleles are governing flower color in this plant? What color does each of these
alleles produce (in other words, what colors are your homozygous plants)?
b. Explain the dominance relationships among your alleles, and explain the results of each of
the crosses described above.
Name ___________________________________ Date_______________ Block ________
a. There are 3 alleles determining flower color – R (red), B (blue) and W (white). R and B are both
dominant over W (recessive). R and B are incompletely dominant to each other producing purple flowers
when they are found together in a plant’s genotype. Red can be RR or RW, Blue can be BB or BW, White
is WW and Purple is RB.
b. See Mrs. Brook for this explanation.

(2) When a male pig from a line of true-breeding (homozygous) black, solid-hooved pigs was crossed to a female from a
breed (homozygous) of red, cloven-hooved pigs, their several progeny all looked alike with regard to color and hooves.
These progeny were all mated to members of the same breed as their red, cloven-hooved mother pig. The offspring
from this final cross were: 11 black, cloven-hooved; 8 black, solid-hooved; 14 red, cloven-hooved; and 10 red, solid-
hooved. For each of these two genes (coat color and hoof type) determine which allele is the dominant one. Explain
your reasoning. What were the phenotypes of the progeny produced by the first mating in this problem? KEY – Use B
– black, R – red, S – solid hooves, C – cloven since you don’t immediately know which is dominant.

a. Black hair and solid hooves are the dominant traits based on the information provided.
Remember that the most common phenotypes (red and cloven in this case) are NOT
always caused by dominant alleles. For example – have 5 fingers on each hand is
actually a recessive trait. Being polydactyl (more than 5 fingers) is a dominant trait –
it’s just rare in our population.

UP TO A P OS SIB LE 125% for t he entir e t est i f you get A LL t he pr oble ms c orr ect
including the bon us!