Name: __________________________________ Period: ____________________ Date: _____________

Biology Study Guide

Mendelian Genetics
Vocabulary
Give a brief definition of each of these terms. These words are likely to be used on the exam.

1. Heredity –

2. Character –

3. Trait –

4. True-Breeding –

5. Allele –

6. Dominant –

7. Recessive –

8. Law of Segregation –

9. Genotype –

10. Phenotype –

11. Test Cross –

12. Law of Independent Assortment –

13. Incomplete Dominance –

14. Codominance –

15. Polygenic –

16. Chromosome Theory of Inheritance –

17. Loci –

18. Linked Genes –

19. Recombinant Phenotypes –

20. Sex-Linked Traits

21. Carriers –
Critical Thinking Questions
These questions are similar to those on the test.

1. Give an example of a character studied by Gregor Mendel, and the two traits within that character.

2. Use Punnet squares to predict the phenotype and genotype ratios of each of the following crosses:

a. A true-breeding homozygous
tall pea plant is crossed with a
true-breeding homozygous
short pea plant.

b. Two of the offspring from

the previous cross are bred.

3. In the previous question, which was the P generation? The F1 generation? The F2 generation?

4. You choose a tall plant from the F2 generation. You don’t know whether it is homozygous dominant or
heterozygous. How could you use a test cross to find out its genotype? Use a Punnet square to predict
the offspring from each possible parental genotype.

5. Predict the phenotype and genotype ratios from crossing a heterozygous purple flowered pea plant with
yellow seeds (PpYy) with a heterozygous purple-flowered pea plant with green seeds (Ppyy). Assume
the two traits are not linked.
6. If a homozygous curly-haired man had children with a homozygous straight-haired woman, the children
would all have wavy hair. What pattern of inheritance is shown by this?

7. What pattern of inheritance is shown by human blood types?

8. Explain the difference between incomplete dominance and codominance.

9. A man with blood type A marries a woman with blood type B. One of their children has blood type O.
Show how this is possible.

10. What are polygenic traits? Give an example of a polygenic trait in humans (besides skin color).

11. A male human is heterozygous for detached earlobes (Ee) and could produce sperm that contain either
the dominant gene (E) or recessive gene (e). Does this occur during meiosis or mitosis?

12. Linked genes are on ( the same / different ) chromosome(s) and tend to be inherited ( together /
separately).

13. A small percentage of offspring can have phenotypes of two linked genes that do not match their
parents. What are these phenotypes called?

a. How and when are these allele combinations created?

14. Predict the phenotype and genotype ratios of a mother that is a carrier for the sex-linked trait hemophilia
with a father that does not have hemophilia.
15. A normal male marries a female that is a carrier for colorblindness. They have five children – a
colorblind male, a normal male, a female carrier, and two normal females. Write out the pedigree chart
for this family.