BIO511: ASSIGNMENT 1

1) Assume that eye colour in humans is controlled by a single pair of genes of which the
effect of that for brown (B) is dominant over the effect of that for blue (b).

a) What is the genotype of a brown-eyed individual who marries a blue-eyed individual

and produces a first offspring that is blue-eyed?

b) For the same mating in (a), what proportions of the two eye colours are expected
among further offspring?

c) What are the expected proportions of eye colours among the offspring of a mating
between two brown-eyed individuals who each had one parent that was blue-eyed?

2) In dogs dark coat colour is dominant over albino and short hair is dominant over long
hair. If these effects are caused by two independently segregating gene pairs, write the
most probable genotypes for the parents of each of the following crosses, using the
symbols C and c for the dark and albino coat colour alleles, and S and s for the short
and long-hair alleles, respectively.

Phenotypes of Offspring
Parental Phenotypes Dark Dark Albino Albino
Short Long Short Long
a) Dark short x dark short 89 31 29 11
b) Dark short x dark long 18 19 0 0
c) Dark short x albino short 20 0 21 0
d) Albino short x albino short 0 0 28 9
e) Dark long x dark long 0 32 0 10
f) Dark short x dark short 46 16 0 0
g) Dark short x dark long 29 31 9 11

3) A cross made between two plants differing in three independently assorting gene pairs,
AaBBcc x AaBbCc. Assume that you are working with a species that produces large
numbers of progeny. Use the forked line method to arrive at the answers to the
following questions:

a) What fraction of the progeny will be heterozygous for all three genes?

b) What fraction of the progeny will be heterozygous for gene A?

c) What fraction of the progeny will express the dominant phenotypes for genes A and
C, and recessive for gene B?

4) Phenylketonuria, a metabolic disease in humans, is caused by a recessive allele, k. Two

heterozygous carriers of the allele marry and plan a family of five children. Determine the
probability for the following combinations of offspring:
a) All their children will be unaffected.

b) Four children will be unaffected and one affected with Phenylketonuria.

c) At least three children will be unaffected.

d) First child will be an unaffected girl.