BABS2213 Principles of Genetics Dr LohKE

Tutorial 1 & 2: Mendelian Inheritance & Pedigree Analysis

1. If genes A, B and C are located on the different chromosomes, assuming no crossing over occurs,
based on Mendel’s rules of inheritance, what types of gametes will be produced and in what
proportions if the organisms have the following genotypes:
a. Aa
b. AABb
c. AaBbCC

2. If right handedness (R) and brown eyes (B) are fully dominant over the left handedness (r) and blue
eyes (b).
a. Consider the following cross: Parents: RrBb X RrBb. Use the Punnett square and then the
forked-lined methods to determine the possible genotypes and phenotypes of F 1 offspring. What
is the probability that the F1 offspring having
i) right handed, brown eyes;
ii) left handed, brown eyes;
iii) right handed, blue eyes;
iv) left handed, blue eyes?

b. What are the possible genotypes of the parents if the following ratios were obtained?
i) Parents: right handed, brown eyes X right handed, brown eyes
F1 offspring: ¾ right handed, brown eyes
¼ right handed, blue eyes

ii) Parents: right handed, brown eyes X right handed, blue eyes
F1 offspring: 6/16 right handed, blue eyes
2/16 left handed, blue eyes
6/16 right handed, brown eyes
2/16 left handed, brown eyes

iii) Parents: right handed, brown eyes X left handed, blue eyes
F1 offspring: ¼ right handed, blue eyes
¼ left handed, blue eyes
¼ right handed, brown eyes
¼ left handed, brown eyes

3. A tomato with oblong, red fruit was crossed with a plant with round, yellow fruit. The F 1 were inbred
to generate the following F2:
Oblong red 60
Oblong yellow 180
Round red 20
Round yellow 60
Explain the inheritance of these traits. (ie. Genes location: same or different chromosomes; dominant
and recessive genes)

4. Consider the crosses in garden peas provided in the table below. For each of the two traits (flower
color and pod position), determine which is dominant and which is recessive. For each cross,
determine the genotype of both parents.
Offspring phenotype
Cross Purple Purple White White
Axial Terminal Axial Terminal
Purple, Axial x Purple, Axial 99 32 29 12
White, Axial x Purple, Axial 112 38 114 40
Purple, Terminal x White, Axial 150 0 155 0
Purple, Terminal x White, Axial 100 99 101 104
White, Terminal x White, Terminal 0 0 0 192

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Testing the genetic ratios
5. A geneticist observed 46 green seedlings and 11 albino (without chlorophyll) seedlings among the
progeny of a cross between two green pea plants. What hypothesis should the geneticist test? Apply
the chi-square test to the data and interpret the results.

6. Mendel crossed pea plants with round and yellow seeds to a plant with wrinkled and green seeds.
The F1 generation was composed of plants producing round and yellow seeds. A cross of the F1
plants resulted the following:
315 round and yellow seeds
108 round and green seeds
101 wrinkled and yellow seeds
32 wrinkled and green seeds
Mendel proposed that this ratio approximated a 9:3:3:1 ratio. Use the chi-square test to statistically
test this hypothesis. Clearly state your conclusion.

Pedigree Analysis & Probability

7. Albinism is an autosomal recessive trait in human beings. A man who is heterozygous for albinism
and a woman who is also heterozygous for albinism have five children. What is the probability that
two of them will be albino? Explain.
a. 10 (3/4)3(1/4)2
b. 5! 4! (3/4)2(1/4)3
c. 5! 4! (1/2)2(1/2)3
d. 5! (1/2)5
e. 10 (1/2)3(1/2)2

8. A dihybrid (AaBb) lab mouse is testcrossed. What is the probability that the first five offspring will
all be homozygous? Explain.
a. Zero
b. (1/2)5 = 0.03125
c. (1/8)5 = 0.00003
d. (1/4)5 = 0.00098
e. (3/8)5 = 0.00742

9. The black hair of guinea pigs is produced by a dominant gene B and white by its recessive allele b.
Unless there is evidence to the contrary, assume that II1 and II4 do not carry the recessive allele.
Calculate the probability that an offspring of III1 x III2 will have white hair.

I
1 2

II
1 2 3 4

III 1 2

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10. Predict the mode of inheritance and the most probable genotypes of each individual. Assume that the
alleles A and a control the expression of the trait.

I
1 2 3 4

II
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

III
1 2 3 4 5 6

IV

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

11. Below are three pedigrees. For each, consider whether it could or could not be consistent with an X-
linked recessive trait. In a sentence or two, indicate why or why not.

(a)

(b)

(c)

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BABS2213 Principles of Genetics Dr LohKE
Tutorial 3: Chromosomal Basic of Inheritance & Sex Linkage, Sex Determination

1. If a genetic disease is inherited on the basis of an autosomal dominant gene, one would expect to
find which of the following?
a. Affected fathers have only affected children.
b. Affected mothers never have affected sons.
c. If both parents are affected, all of their offspring have the disease.
d. If a child has the disease, one of his or her grandparents also had the disease.

2. If a genetic disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive, one would expect to find which of the
following?
a. Two affected individuals never have an unaffected child.
b. Two affected individuals have affected male offspring but no affected female children.
c. If a child has the disease, one of his or her grandparents will have had it.
d. In a marriage between an affected individual and an unaffected one, all the children are
unaffected.

3. “Deranged” is a phenotype in Drosophila in which the thoracic bristles are disarranged and the
wings held vertically upward. Crosses between deranged females and normal males, each from pure
stock cultures, result in a 1:1 ratio of normal females to deranged males among the progeny. What
does this show?
a. The gene for deranged is autosomal and dominant.
b. The gene for deranged is autosomal and recessive.
c. The gene for deranged is X-linked and dominant.
d. The gene for deranged is X-linked and recessive.
e. Deranged is determined by two genes interacting epistatically.

4. An unaffected women (i.e., without disease symptoms) who is heterozygous for the X-linked allele
causing Duchenne muscular dystrophy has children with a normal man. What are the probabilities of
the following combinations of offspring?
i. An unaffected son
ii. An unaffected son or daughter
iii. A family of three children, all of whom are affected

5. Red-green color blindness is inherited as a recessive X-linked trait. What are the following
probabilities?
i. A woman with phenotypically normal parents and a color-blind brother will have a color-
blind son. Assume that she has no previous children.
ii. The next child of a phenotypically normal woman, who has already had one color-blind son,
will be a color-blind son.
iii. The next child of a phenotypically normal woman, who has already had one color-blind son,
and who is married to a color-blind man, will have a color-blind daughter.

6. Predict the F1 and F2 results of crossing a male fowl that is cock feathered with a true-breeding hen-
feathered female fowl. Recall that these traits are sex-limited.

7. The color of spotted cattle is controlled by an autosomally-linked, sex-influenced gene. The gene M
produces mahogany-and-white spots, and it is dominant in bulls (male cattle). Its allele, m, is
responsible for red-and-white spots, and it is dominant in cows (female cattle). A red-and-white
spotted bull was crossed with a mahogany-and-white spotted cow. The cow gave birth to a single
calf with redand- white spots.
i. What are the genotypes of the cow, the bull, and the calf?
ii. What is the sex of the calf?

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BABS2213 Principles of Genetics Dr LohKE
Tutorial 4: Gene Interaction & Population Genetics

Gene Interaction

1. Suppose that genes B and C are located on two different chromosome and both required for expression
of a characteristic X. A cross between two X – parents AAbb x aaBB produced F1 progeny that are all X
phenotypically, and F2 progeny that are X : X – in a 9 : 7 ratio.
i) Using a Punnett square method, explain why an X : X – ratio of 9 : 7 was observed?
ii) What are the different genotypes found in the F2 generation that can give an X phenotype?

2. Consider the following genotypes of two independently assorting autosomal genes that determine the
coat color in dogs:
A-B- black
A-bb yellow
aaB- gray
aabb cream

Consider a third gene pair on a separate autosome which interacts with genes A and B to determine the
dog color. If CC and Cc genotypes allow color according to the expression of the A and B alleles.
However, the cc genotype results in albino dog regardless of the A and B alleles present. Using forked-
line method, determine the F1 phenotypic ratio of the cross between AaBbCc X AaBbcc.

3. The results shown in Table 1 are from an experiment for coat color in a dog species. Assume that the
original parents were homozygous at all loci governing the coat color.

Table 1
Cross F1 F2
albino x brown All black 30 black: 11 brown: 15 albino

If there are two loci, A and B, interact in these crosses, propose a hypothesis to describe the inheritance
of coat color in these crosses. Perform a 2 analysis to determine if the genetics hypothesis is consistent
with the data. Draw a conclusion from your 2 analysis.

Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

4. Nowadays, newborn babies are required to be tested for phenylketonuria (PKU), an autosomal recessive
genetic disorder. If untreated, individual homozygous for PKU suffer mental retardation. In a recent year,
4 phenylketonuric babies were detected out of 126,000 tested. Assuming Hardy-Weinberg conditions,
what is the frequency of the PKU gene in this population? What is the percentage of heterozygous
carriers?

5. The inability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) is due to a recessive allele and is inherited autosomally.
If this particular trait in a population involves only two alleles in a dominant/recessive relationship
(namely, tasters, T, and nontasters, t) and that the population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, calculate
the frequencies of alleles T and t if the phenotypic frequency of individuals who can taste PTC is
approximately 0.7.

6. The S-s antigen system in human is controlled by two codominant alleles, S and s. In a group of 3146
individuals, the following genotypic frequencies were found: 188 SS, 717 Ss and 2241 ss.
i) Calculate the frequency of the S and s alleles.
ii) Determine whether the genotypic frequencies are in Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium by using chi-square test.

7. Assume that 30% of the human beings on campus have type A blood, 20% have type B blood, 10% have
type AB blood, and 40% are type O. Calculate allele frequencies for this population.

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BABS2213 Principles of Genetics Dr LohKE
Tutorial 5: Eukaryotic Gene Mapping

1. A homozygous groucho fly (gro, bristles clumped above the eyes) is crossed with a homozygous rough
fly (ro, eye abnormality). The F1 females are testcrossed, with the following offspring produced:

groucho 518
rough 471
groucho, rough 6
wildtype 5
-------
1,000
What is the linkage arrangement of these loci?

2. A true bred female fruit fly with abnormal eyes (abe) of a brown color (bis, bistre) is crossed with a true
bred wild type male. Her sons have abnormal, brown eyes; her daughters are of the wild-type. When
these F1 flies are crossed among themselves, the following offspring are produced:

Phenotype sons daughters

Abnormal, brown 219 197
Abnormal 43 45
Brown 37 35
Wild-type 201 223

a) Are these two traits linked? Explain your answer

b) Where does the two loci located? Explain your answer.
c) Determine the distance between these loci.

3. Drosophila females heterozygous for three recessive mutations, a, b, and c, were crossed to males
homozygous for all three mutations. The cross yielded the following results:

Genotypes Number
+++ 75
+b+ 3
++c 495
+bc 196
a++ 189
a+c 6
ab+ 506
abc 65 .

a) What is the correct order of these genes?

b) What is the genes orientation in this parental Drosophila heterozygous female?
c) Estimate the distance between
i) genes a and b
ii) genes a and c.
iii) genes b and c.

Explain all your answers.

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4. In corn, a trihybrid Tunicate (T), Glossy (G), Liguled (L) plant was crossed with a nontunicate,
nonglossy, liguleless plant, producing the following offspring:

Tunicate, liguleless, Glossy 58

Tunicate, liguleless, nonglossy 15
Tunicate, Liguled, Glossy 55
Tunicate, Liguled, nonglossy 13
nonsdtunicate, Liguled, Glossy 16
nontunicate, Liguled, nonglossy 53
nontunicate, liguleless, Glossy 14
nontunicate, liguleless, nonglossy 59
283

a) Determine which genes are linked.

b) Determine the genotype of the heterozygote; be sure to indicate which alleles are on which
chromosome.
c) Calculate the map distances between the linked genes.

5. In Drosophila, kidney bean eye (k), cardinal eye (cd), and ebony body (e) are three recessive alleles. If
homozygous kidney, cardinal females are crossed to homozygous ebony males, the F1 offspring are all
wildtype. If heterozygous F1 females are mated with kidney, cardinal, ebony males, the following two
thousand progeny appear:

880 kidney, cardinal

887 ebony
64 kidney, ebony
67 cardinal
49 kidney
46 ebony, cardinal
3 kidney, ebony, cardinal
4 wildtype

a) Determine the chromosomal composition of the F1 females.

b) Derive a map of the three genes.

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BABS2213 Principles of Genetics Dr LohKE
Tutorial 6: Microbial Genetics

1. Assume that you wish to distinguish lac -, leu -, or str r strains from a wild-type strain that is lac + leu
+
str s. In the following table, write a Y if the medium in each row can distinguish the strain indicated in
each column from the wild-type strain for at least one of the three phenotypes. Write N for if the medium
cannot be used to distinguish the strain from the wild-type strain.

Genotype
Medium
lac+ leu- str s lac- leu- strs lac- leu+ str s lac+ leu+ strr lac- leu- str r
Minimal

Minimal
+ leucine

Minimal
- glucose
+ lactose
Minimal
+streptomycin

Minimal
+ leucine
+streptomycin
Minimal
+ lactose
- glucose
+streptomycin
Minimal
+ leucine
+ lactose
- glucose
+streptomycin

2. An Hfr strain that is a+b+c+d+e+ is mated with an F - strain that is a-b-c-d-e-. The mating is interrupted
every five minutes, and the genotypes of the F - recombinants are determined. The results were obtained.
Time a b c d e
5 - - - - -
10 + - - - -
15 + - - - -
20 + - - - -
25 + - - - -
30 + - - + -
35 + - - + -
40 + + - + -
45 + + - + -
50 + + - + -
55 + + - + -
60 + + - + -
65 + + + + -
70 + + + + -
75 + + + + +

Draw the map of the Hfr chromosome and indicate the position of the F factor, the direction of the
transfer and the minutes between genes.

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3. A prototrophic strain (his+ arg+ lac+) was used as a donor to transform an auxotrophic strain (his- arg-
-
lac ). Initial transformants are isolated on minimal medium + histidine + arginine + lactose – glucose.

i. What genotypes will grow on this medium?

ii. These colonies are replicated to minimal medium + histidine, and 50% of the original
colonies grow. What genotypes will grow on this medium?

iii. The original colonies are also replicated to minimal medium + arginine, and 10% of the
colonies grow. What genotypes will grow on this medium?

iv. The original colonies are also replicated to minimal medium. No colonies grow. Based
on this information, what genotypes will grow on minimal medium + histidine and on
minimal medium + arginine? What is the relative gene order for his, arg, and lac? Which
two genes are closer? Explain your answer.

4. Interrupted mating experiment between Hfr and F - strains can be used to map the bacterial genes. In
the following experiment, an Hfr strain X (azir gal+ gly+ his+ lac+ leu+ thi+ thr+ strs tonr) was mixed
with the F - strain which is auxotrophic for threonine (thr-), leucine (leu-), glycine (gly-), and histidine
(his-), is resistant to streptomycin (strr), but is sensitive to sodium azide (azis), and to infection by
bacteriophage T1 (tons), and is unable to ferment lactose (lac-) or galactose (gal-). At various time
intervals, small aliquots were removed and mixed violently to separate the conjugating cells. The
samples were then plated onto selective media to measure the frequency of thr+ leu+ strr
recombinants. It was learnt that thr and leu were very close to the origin of replication and str was
quite distant from the origin of replication in the Hfr chromosomal DNA. The results obtained are
illustrated in the figure below.
azir
tonr
Frequency (%) of Hfr genetic
markers among thr+ leu+

lac+
transconjugants.

gal+

his+
gly+

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time of conjugation (minutes)

(i) What are Hfr strains? (2 marks)

(ii) What is the significant difference in DNA transfer in the cross between Hfr and F -
strains and between F + and F - strains? (3 marks)

(iii) How do you separate the thr+ leu+ strr recombinants from the Hfr cells used in this
experiment? (2 marks)

(iv) Based on the experimental results above, what is the order of the genes in the Hfr
chromosome and what are the distances (in minutes) between these genes? (4
marks)

(v) Is it possible to detect thr+ his+ recombinants after 25 minutes? (1 mark)

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 (vi) Explain how you determine the presence of gal+ cells from thr+ leu+ strr
recombinants. (2 marks)

5. In Escherichia coli, four different Hfr strains, derived from the same F + strains, were mated with F –
strains auxotrophic for a number of nutritional requirements (Arg – Bio– Cys– Trp– Gal– His– Lac– Mal–
Xyl– Leu– Met– ). Matings were interrupted at various intervals and cells were plated on minimal
medium supplemented with particular nutrients to test for gene transfer. The following results show
the time of entry for each of the genes in four different Hfr strains.

Table 1: Time-of-Entry Mapping Data*

Hfr strains Genes

arg+ bio+ cys+ trp+ gal+ his+ lac+ mal+ xyl+ leu+ met+
Hfr 1 9 5 2 1 6.5
Hfr 2 15 11.5 2.5 3.5 6
Hfr 3 15 4 6 11 17.5
Hfr 4 11 5 14.5 3 20
–
* The numbers denote the number of minutes elapsed before a gene enters the F
cells.

Draw a circular map of E. coli chromosome. (10 marks)

6. Interrupted-mating experiments with a variety of Hfr strains showed the following orders of gene
transfer for Hfr strains H, 1, 2, and 3:

Hfr strains Orders of gene transfer

H Origin-thr-pro-lac-pur-gal
1 Origin-thr-thi-gly-his
2 Origin-his-gly-thi-thr-pro-lac
3 Origin-gly-his-gal-pur-lac-pro

Construct a circular chromosome map and show the direction of the transfer and various locations of
integrated F factors for each Hfr strain. (6 marks)

7. A transduction experiment was conducted using the donor strain his+ arg+ trp+ and the recipient
strain his- arg- trp-. The his+ allele was used as the selection marker. The results were as follows:
his+ arg+ trp+ 30
his+ arg+ trp- 44
his+ arg- trp- 60
his+ arg- trp+ 10

i) Determine the relative order of his, arg, and trp.

ii) Determine the cotransductance frequencies.

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BABS2213 Principles of Genetics Dr Loh KE
Tutorial 7: Chromosomal Aberrations

1. Define:
a) Aneuploidy
b) Euploidy
c) Inversion
d) Translocation
e) Autopolyploidy
f) Allopolyploidy
g) Paracentric inversion
h) Pericentric inversion
i) Monosomy
j) Trisomy
k) Dicentric chromosome
l) Acentric chromosome

2. A normal chromosome has the following gene sequence (double strokes, //, represent centromeres):

A B C D // E F G H

Determine the chromosomal mutation illustrated by each of the following chromosomes:

(i) A B C F E // D G H

(ii) A B D // E F G H

(iii) A B D C // E F G H

(iv) A B C D // E F E F G H

(v) A B C D // E F

3. An inversion heterozygote has the following inverted chromosome:

What would be the products if crossover occurred between genes B and C on one inverted and one
normal chromosome? Which of the meiotic products will be viable?

4. A phenotypically abnormal individual has a phenotypically normal father with an inversion on one copy
of chromosome and a normal mother without any changes in chromosome structure. The order of genes
along chromosome in the father is as follow (double strokes, //, represent centromeres):

G H I J // K L M N O (normal chromosome)
g h i l k // j m n o (inverted chromosome)

The phenotypically abnormal offspring has a chromosome with the following gene order:

G H I J // K l i h g

How was this chromosome formed? In your answer, explain where the crossover occurred (i.e. between
which two genes).

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5. The following diagram shows two pairs of homologous chromosomes of a translocation heterozygote.

Q
R
P

e
b

f
a

s
t
Assume that no crossover occurs during meiosis.

(i) Draw the meiotic chromosome pairing configuration in the species heterozygous for a
reciprocal translocation above.
(ii) What will be the gametes produced by alternate segregation?
(iii) What will be the genotypes of gametes produced by an adjacent 2 segregation?

6. Turner syndrome occurs when an individual inherits one X chromosome but lacks a second sex
chromosome. Can Turner syndrome be due to nondisjunction during oogenesis, spermatogenesis or
both? If a phenotypically normal couple has a color-blind child (due to recessive X-linked allele) with
Turner syndrome, with the help of a sketch, explain whether nondisjunction occur during oogenesis or
spermatogenesis in this child’s parents? (2, 10 marks)

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