Heredity and Genetics

IIB2b. Make predictions concerning inheritance based on Gregor Mendels laws of heredity.

Genetic Expression
Genes? Alleles? Genotype? Punnett square? Phenotype?

Genes & Alleles

A gene is a specific portions of DNA, determine hereditary characteristics. An allele is an alternate form of a gene. Alleles for a particular gene may be:
Dominant meaning this trait will most likely express itself. Recessive meaning this trait will be masked by the dominant allele unless it is present with another recessive allele.

Genotypes
An individual has two of each chromosome therefore he/she has at least two alleles for each trait. The alleles may be identical, Homozygous, or different, Heterozygous. For example, GG and gg represent homozygous genotypes and Gg represents the heterozygous genotype.

Phenotype
The phenotype of an organism is simply the characteristics it will have. For example if G is green and g is yellow the following genotypes will result in the listed phenotypes if green is dominant and yellow is recessive.
GG = green Gg = green gg = yellow

Punnett Square
The Punnett Square is used by geneticists to express the possible combinations for a certain trait an offspring may inherit from its parents.

Gene Segregation

Monohybrid Practice Problem

Create a punnett square and give the genotypic and phenotypic results for the cross between a father (Cc) and mother (Cc). In this instance cute (C) is dominant and ugly (c) is recessive.

Incomplete Dominance
In Caucasians, both the straight (S) and curly (C) hair traits are dominant. The heterozygous condition (CS) results in wavy hair. What will be the genotypic and phenotypic ratios for a cross between a homozygous straight-hair individual and a heterozygous individual?

Codominance
In some instances, a cross between two truebreeding individuals may result in a combination of the two traits. For example, in Cocker Spaniels a blue roan (BW) colored dog is an oddity in which the dogs coat is a mixture of both black (B) and white (W). As a breeder, one can make twice as much money for a blue roan than for a solid colored dog. What two parents would be most likely to produce a blue roan? (Black = BB and White =WW)

Sex-linked
Some traits are carried on the X chromosome so they are called sex-linked traits. For example, male-pattern baldness is a sex-linked disorder. A male experiencing male-pattern baldness has received (XB, Y) from his parents. While a male who is not experiencing male-pattern baldness has received (Xb, Y) from his parents. Which parent decides whether the male will be bald or not? ____________ What is the probability that XBXb and XBY parents will produce a normal male child?

Monohybrid Practice Problem

What will be the resulting phenotypic and genotypic ratios of a cross between a homozygous dominant individual and a homozygous recessive individual considering inflated (I) pods are completely dominant over constricted pods (i)?

Monohybrid Practice Problem

What will be the resulting phenotypic and genotypic ratios of a cross between two heterozygous individuals considering yellow (Y) seeds are completely dominant to green (y) seeds?

Monohybrid Practice Problem

What will be the resulting phenotypic and genotypic ratios of a cross between a homozygous recessive individual and a heterozygous individual considering that the gene for smooth (S) seeds is completely dominant to wrinkled (s) seeds?

Monohybrid Practice Problem

If there are two pea plants one with dominant colored seeds (yellow) and the other with recessive colored seeds (green), how can we determine the genotype of the yellow seeded pea plant?

Testcross
In dogs, there is an hereditary deafness caused by a recessive gene, d. A kennel owner has a male dog that she wants to use for breeding purposes if possible. The dog can hear, so the owner knows his genotype is either DD or Dd. If the dogs genotype is Dd, the owner does not wish to use him for breeding so that the deafness gene will not be passed on. This can be tested by breeding the dog to a deaf female (dd). Draw the Punnett squares to illustrate these two possible crosses. In each case, what percentage/how many of the offspring would be expected to be hearing? deaf? How could you tell the genotype of this male dog? Also, using Punnett square(s), show how two hearing dogs could produce deaf offspring.

Monohybrid Cross
In humans, brown eyes (B) are dominant over blue (b). A brown-eyed man marries a blue-eyed woman and they have three children, two of whom are brown-eyed and one of whom is blue-eyed. Draw the Punnett square that illustrates this marriage. What is the mans genotype? What are the genotypes of the children?

Sex-Linked Genes
In humans, the genes for colorblindness and hemophilia are both located on the X chromosome with no corresponding gene on the Y. These are both recessive genes. If a man and a woman, both with normal vision, marry and have a colorblind son, draw the Punnett square that illustrates this. If the man dies and the woman remarries to a colorblind man, draw a Punnett square showing the type(s) of children that could be expected from this marriage. How many/what percentage of each could be expected?

Sex-Influenced Traits
Baldness in humans is a dominant, sex-influenced trait. This gene is on the autosomes, not the sex chromosomes. A man who is BB or Bb will be bald and will be normal only if he is bb. A woman will only be bald if she is BB and normal if she is Bb or bb (its almost like B is dominant in males and b is dominant in females). If two parents are heterozygous for baldness, what are the chances of their children being bald? Use a Punnett square to illustrate this. Note: because the sex of a person does make a difference in how the gene is expressed, you need to set this up as a dihybrid cross to account for the sex of the children.

Dihybrid Crosses
If the owner of a blue roan Cocker Spaniel (BW) knows that this dog is also heterozygous for ear length (Ll) and crosses (mates) him with a heterozygous female, what will be the phenotypic and genotypic results of this mating?