BIOL 234 – Assignment 3

Covers material from Lectures 6-8 (Ch. 3, 4)

Due: Tuesday, February 11th, 9:00 am

Assignment Rules:

- Put all answers in your own words.

- Include a list of citations at the end of your assignment. Material from your class notes and the
textbook should still be cited. Assignments without references will receive a deduction in
marks.
- Assignments must be submitted as a single document. For questions requiring a written
answer, your answers must typed. For questions requiring problem solving, you may write
your solution on a blank piece of paper, take a picture/scan it, and then insert the picture into
the document at the appropriate location.
- For questions involving problem solving, make sure to show your work for full marks.
- Late assignments will have a 10% penalty. Assignments will not be accepted more than 24
hours after the deadline.

Things to consider:

- When I make a test, I often use modified versions of assignment questions. It is really useful
for you to review your assignments after they’ve been marked to help you prepare for the next
test!
- I am happy to help you with your assignments in my office hours. I may not give you the final
answer, but I will guide you in the right direction. However, you must have attempted the
question before you ask me to help you with it! Show me what you’ve been able to complete
and where you’re stuck so I can help you better.
1. (5 marks) The pedigree below shows the inheritance of a rare X-linked recessive disorder. Let’s
call the disease allele Xd.

a. What is the genotype of I-1, II-2, II-6, III-1, and III-3? Explain how you know.
I-1 -X^D/Y
II-2-X^D/Y
II-6-X^D/Y
III-1- X^D/Y
III-3 -X^D/Y
All the genotypes mentioned above are of males and they only need one X^d allele to get
effected because the other one will be Y allele always . Therefore, if they are affected that
means they have X^d/Y and unaffected will have X^D/Y as their genotype.

b. What is the genotype of II-3, III-5, and IV-1? Explain how you know.

II-3 X^d/Y
III-5 X^d/Y
IV-1 X^d/Y
Again , all males that are effected will have X^d/Y as they only need one (recessive) X^d to
get effected .

c. What is the genotype of III-2? Explain how you know.

X^D/X^d
Because she acts here as a carrier to pass the disease to males only .

d. What are the possible genotypes of IV-2? What is the probability of each?
X^D/X^d -1/2
X^D/X^D -1/2

e. IV-2 and III-3 decide to have children. What is the probability that they have an affected
child? (Remember to consider the probability that IV-2 is a carrier.)
IV-2 - X^D/X^d -1/2
III-3 -X^D/Y-1/2
Probability 1*1/2=1/2
 IV-2 and III-5 decide to have children. What is the probability that they have an affected
child? (Remember to consider the probability that IV-2 is a carrier.)
IV-2 - X^D/X^d -1
III-5 X^d/Y – 1/2
Probability 1/*1/2*=1/4

f. IV-2 and III-5 have an affected son. Given this new information, what would you now predict
for the probability of their next child being affected?
Probability – ½*1*1/4=1/8

2. (3 marks) Ulva lactuca is a haploid species of green algae. Wild type strains have ruffled leaf
edges and can synthesize the amino acid alanine. Mutant versions of these traits result in smooth
leaf edges and defective alanine synthesis.
a. You have a mutant strain (let’s call it strain A) that has smooth leaf edges (but normal alanine
synthesis). You cross it with a wild type strain and see ½ smooth: ½ ruffled leaf edges in the
progeny. What does this ratio tell you about the genetics of the smooth leaf mutation?

Gene is inherited by single gene inheritance

b. A different mutant strain of Ulva was isolated that had the normal ruffled leaf edges, but had
defective alanine synthesis. This mutation is in a separate gene on a separate chromosome
from the mutation in the first part of the question. Let’s call this Strain B. Create your own
gene symbols for both alleles of both genes. Show the genotypes of each parent strain, and
predict the genotypes, phenotypes, and ratios of the progeny of a cross between the two
mutant strains (Strain A x Strain B). Show the genotype of any intermediate stages as well.

3. (2 marks) Describe Mendel’s second law of inheritance (specifically with respect to allele pairs).
Explain how the behaviour of chromosomes in meiosis reflects each of these laws. (Think
carefully about exactly which stage of meiosis causes the alleles to behave as described in
Mendel’s second law, and what the chromosomes are doing at that stage to make the alleles
behave that way.)
In
4. (4 marks) You have a pure-breeding pea plant with purple flowers and green pods, and you cross
this with a pure-breeding plant with white flowers and yellow pods. The F1 has purple flowers and
yellow pods. The F1 is then self-crossed, producing the F2 generation.
a. Assuming independent assortment, what ratio of phenotypes do you expect to see in the F2?
(You should be able to answer this without a Punnett square, if you wish. Do not forget to
actually name the phenotypes, not just the ratio.)

b. You get the following results:

187 purple flowers, yellow pods 52 purple flowers, green pods
70 white flowers, yellow pods 11 white flowers, green pods
Use the χ2 test to determine if your results are consistent with your expectations. Show your
work.

c. If, instead of self-crossing the F1, you did a test cross, what would you expect the phenotypic
ratio of the offspring to be? Identify which of the offspring you listed are recombinants and
which are parentals.
5. (2 marks) A man has a mitochondrial disorder, and is also homozygous for the recessive allele of
an autosomal recessive disorder. He has children with a woman with normal mitochondria, and
who is a heterozygous carrier for the same autosomal disorder.
Make and define your own allele symbols. Predict the phenotypes of the offspring of this cross
and the ratio in which they will occur. Show your work.
6. (5 marks) In the following cross, the genes are inherited independently except for the D and E
loci, which are tightly linked and show zero recombination:
A/A∙b/b∙c/c∙D/D∙e/e x a/a∙B/B∙C/C∙d/d∙E/E.
a. Re-write the genotypes of the parents using the correct notation to show the arrangement of
these genes (including the linkage of D and E loci). Also write the genotype of the F1 with the
correct notation.

b. Show your work for all of the following questions. That means you must show what numbers
you used in your calculations, and explain where those numbers came from.
In the F2 (obtained by self-crossing the F1), what proportion of individuals will be:
i. pure breeding?

ii. heterozygous for all loci?

iii. homozygous recessive for all loci?

iv. A/a∙b/b∙C/c∙D/D∙e/e?

7. (3 marks) A dihybrid organism with genotype F/f∙G/g is testcrossed, and produces the following
offspring:
48 F/f∙g/g
43 f/f∙G/g
5 F/f∙G/g
4 f/f∙g/g
Show your work for the following questions:

a. What is the map distance between the f and g loci?

b. Re-write the genotype of the dihybrid with correct notation. Pay close attention to which
combinations of alleles are parental, using the information given above.

c. If the dihybrid is self-crossed, what is the probability of getting an offspring that is F/F∙G/G?
(Note: this genotype is not written in correct notation given what you know about the
arrangement of the genes!)
8. (5 marks) An experiment was done to determine the linkage relationship of three genes (a, b, and
c are the recessive, mutant genes, a ‘+’ indicates wild-type and dominant for each gene) in
Drosophila melanogaster.
Pure-breeding females phenotypically a, b+, c+ were crossed with pure-breeding males
phenotypically a+, b, c. The F1 females were all wild type in appearance, and the F1 males were all
a, b+, c+ in appearance.
The F1 females and males were each testcrossed with a fly of phenotype a, b, c. When the male F1
was testcrossed, all male offspring were a, b, c, and all female offspring were a, b+, c+. When the
F1 female was testcrossed, the following phenotypes were seen in all offspring, regardless of sex.

Phenotypes Frequency
a∙b+∙c 8
a+∙b∙c+ 2
a∙b∙c+ 33
a+∙b+∙c 37
a∙b∙c 94
+ + +
a ∙b ∙c 86
a∙b+∙c+ 369
a+∙b∙c 371
Total 1,000

a. Calculate the recombination frequency between each pair of genes. Draw a genetic map
showing the order of the genes and the distances between them. Show your work.

b. Re-write the genotypes of the parents and the F1 with the correct notation. Make sure to
consider why the F1 showed different phenotypes for males and females, and why the results
of the testcross were different for the F1 males and females.

c. Calculate the interference.

References: lecture notes 6-8.