BIO LOGY

UNIT 02 MUF 0032

WORKSHEET: INTERPRETING AND ANALYSISING PEDIGREES

1. Determine the most likely pattern of inheritance for the following pedigree.

Autosomal dominant
inheritance

2. Which one of the following pedigrees is most likely displaying an X-linked recessive pattern of inheritance?
A.
C.

B.
D.

3. The following pedigree shows three generations of a family.

1
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a. What is the most likely pattern of inheritance for this trait?
Autosomal recessive inheritance.

b. What evidence supports your decision in part a?

It is recessive for parent I-1 and 2 which does not contain trait but have a child with trait which
is II-5.

c. If individuals II5 and II6 were to have another child who also had the trait, would it change your
conclusion in part a? Why or why not?
No, it is still autosomal recessive. Parents having recessive trait will definitely have children
with trait.

d. If individual II2 had the trait, would it change your conclusion in part a? Why or why not?
Individual I-1 would also have the disorder if this were the case. For individual II-5 to have an
X-linked recessive disorder, her father must also have the disorder.

4. When looking at a pedigree, which of the following clues would suggest a pattern of X-linked dominant
inheritance?
A. Males with the trait always pass it on to their sons.
B. Males without the trait may have daughters with the trait.
C. Females with the condition always pass it on to their sons.
D. Females without the trait may have sons with the trait.
E. All daughters of a male with the trait, will also have the trait.
5. The pedigree below shows the inheritance of a sex-linked trait.

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 a. Individuals I2 and II1 are represented by a circle with a dot. What does this tell you about their
genotype and phenotype?
A female carrier heterozygote but does not show the trait in their phenotype.

b. What is the genotype of individual II2?

XaY

c. If I1 and I2 have another son, what is the probability that he will have the trait?
50%

6. The following pedigrees show the inheritance of woolly hair in a family. Woolly hair (W) is a dominant trait.

2 3 4 5

a. The genotype of individual I2 is shown. What is the genotype of individual II4?

Ww

b. What is the genotype of individual II5?

ww

c. Is it possible to know the genotype of individual III4 for certain? What additional evidence would
confirm a heterozygous genotype?
Individual III4 must be Ww as parent II-5 is ww.

d. What is the percentage likelihood that the offspring of III4 and III5 will have woolly hair?
50%

e. What is the probability that individual III1 has the genotype Ww?
100% as II-1 have the recessive phenotype.

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7. From the pedigree below, list all the people who have the same mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).

Hugh
Maxine

Nyssa Patrick Sue Ted James

John Jackson Angus

8. A particular human disease is autosomal dominant. The pedigree below represents a family in which some
members have the disease.

a. Choose letters to represent the alleles for this trait and write a key to apply to this pedigree. b.
Identify the genotypes of individuals:
i. A: ______ iii. C: ______ ii. B: ______ iv. D: ______
c. This disease is fatal and yet still persists in the population. Suggest how this is possible.

d. What is the expected percentage of affected children produced by individuals D and E? Show all your
working out, including parental genotypes, gametes and all F 1 genotypes and phenotypes.
e. In another family, the actual ratio of affected children is higher than the expected percentage. Give two
possible reasons for this.

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9. The coat colour of cocker spaniel dogs can vary considerably. Four of these coat colours are black, liver, red
and lemon. These four colours result from the interaction of two particular autosomal genes.
The pedigree below shows the inheritance of coat colour in three generations of cocker spaniels.

a. I1 and I2 are heterozygous at both the R and B loci. What evidence is there to support this conclusion?

b. What is the genotype of individual II4?

c. What is the genotype of individual III4?

10. In humans, a biochemical disorder known as Tyrosinemia has been investigated. If treated, the disorder is
not usually fatal. The pedigree below shows the inheritance of Tyrosinemia in three generations of one
family. The gene for Tyrosinemia is located on an autosome.

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a. Is Tyrosinemia a dominant or recessive trait?

b. What evidence is seen in the pedigree to support your conclusion to part a?

c. Allocate appropriate symbols to represent the alleles involved in this trait and state what each symbol
represents.

d. Use the symbols stated in part c to indicate the genotypes of the following individuals.
i. I1: __________ ii. III6: __________
e. Individuals II4 and II5 have another child. What is the probability that the child will have the disorder?

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