Genetics Problems – Grade 11

Monohybrid crosses

1. Several black guinea pigs of the same genotype were mater and produce 29 black and 9 white
offspring. What would you predict the genotypes of the parents to be?

2. A breed of dogs has long hair dominant to short hair. A long haired bitch was first mated with a
short hair dog and produced 3 long haired and 3 short hair puppies. Her 2nd mating with a long
haired dog produced a litter with all of the puppies having long hair. Use the symbol (L) to
represent the alleles for long hair and the symbol (l) to represent short hair.
a. What is the genotype of the long haired bitch?
b. What are the genotypes of the two dogs that the bitch mated with?
c. How could you determine which of the long haired puppies of the second mating were
homozygous?

3. In an experiment with maize, a white-grained variety was crossed with a red grained variety.
When seeds thus produced were grown, all of the resulting plants (F1 gen.) produced red grains.
a. Why were there no white grains produced in the F1 generation?
b. Explain with the help of genetic symbols what would result from interbreeding the F1
generation.

4. There are 20 chromosomes in the somatic cells of the house mouse. How many chromosomes
does a mouse receive from its father? How many chromosomes are in a mouse’s ovum?

5. Black coat of guinea pigs is a dominant trait, white is the alternative recessive trait. When a pure
black guinea pig is crossed with a white one, what fraction of the black F2 generation is expected
to be heterozygous?

6. 68% of humans can roll their tongue 32% cannot. This characteristic is controlled by a single pair
of alleles represented by T and t.
a. Using the symbols given indicate the possible genotypes in humans.
b. If T is dominant to t, which of the genotypes would be tongue rollers?
c. Two parents who are tongue rollers produce some children who cannot roll their tongues.
i. Write down the genetic diagram for this inheritance.
ii. State the phenotypic and genotypic ratio.

7. In pea seeds, smooth coats are a dominant trait and wrinkled coats are a recessive trait. Hybrid
pea plants with smooth coated seeds are crossed. 100 offspring are produced. What kind of seed
coats will be present among the offspring?

8. Albinism, the total lack of pigment, is due to a recessive gene. A man and woman plan to marry
and wish to know the probability of their having any albino children. What are the probabilities if:
a. Both are normally pigmented, but each has one albino parent
b. The man is an albino, the girl is normally pigmented, but her father is an albino

9. In human eye colour, brown eyes are dominant to blue eyes. If a man with brown eyes marries a
woman with blue eyes, what colour eyes would their children have if:
a. The man is homozygous for brown eyes?
b. The man was heterozygous for brown eyes?

10. There is a type of poor vision in humans called ‘night blindness’ that is controlled by a single
dominant gene. A man with this eye defect marries a woman who has normal night vision. The
couple has five children, three who have normal vision and two who have night blindness. Using
the symbol (B) for the dominant gene and (b) for the recessive gene answer the following
questions.
a. Use a genetic diagram to indicate the genotypes and phenotypes for each generation
 b. One of the sons who have night blindness married a woman who also has night blindness.
They had only one child. Draw the genetic diagram for this family indicating the possible
genotypes and phenotypes for this one child.

Incomplete Dominance

11. In a cross between pure breeding red flowered and white flowered plants, the F1 offspring are pink
flowered. In the F2 generation the offspring appear in the ration 1 red: 2 pink: 1 white. From the
data given:
a. What can you conclude about the action of the genes concerned with colour formation?
b. What ratios would you expect if you crossed an
i. F2 red with an F2 pink
ii. F2 red with and F2 white
iii. Pink with pink
c. From the original cross diagram determine the genotypes of all the individuals from parental
types to F2 offspring.

12. The so-called “blue” (really gray) Andalusian variety of chickens is produced by a cross between
the black and white varieties, both of which breed true (i.e. both are homozygous).
a. What colour chickens and in what proportions would you expect if you crossed two blues? A
blue and a black?

13. In the four o’clock plant, red colour exhibits incomplete dominance over white; when both exist
together the flowers are pink.
a. In cross between a red flower and a white one, what is the genotype of the offspring?
b. What is the genotypic ratio of the F2 generation if two of the F1 from (a) are crossed?
c. List the genotypes of offspring produced by a cross between the F1 generation and a red parent.

Co-dominance

14. A woman of blood group A claims that a man of blood group AB is the father of her child. A
blood test revealed that the child has blood type O. Is it possible that the woman’s claim is
correct? Could the father have been a group B man? Explain your reasoning.

15. Both Mrs. Frank and Mrs. Jones had babies the same day in the hospital. Mrs. Frank took home a
baby girl, whom she called Francine. Mrs. Jones took home a baby girl whom she named Jenny.
Mrs. Jones began to suspect that her child was accidentally switched with the Frank baby. Blood
tests were done to determine if this was so.
Results:
Mr. Frank – type A Mr. Jones – type A
Mrs. Frank – type B Mrs. Jones – type A

Francine Smith – type O Jenny Jones – type B

Did a switch occur?

16. A red cow has the gene pair for red hair. A white bull has a gene pair for white hair. If a red cow
and a white bull are mated, the offspring are all roan, i.e. they have red and white hairs equally
distributed over their bodies. What coat colours would you expect among the offspring of a mating
between two roan cattle?

17. If Mr. and Mrs. Felix, both having blood type B, have 12 children, ¾ of whom are type B and ¼ of
whom are type O, what are the genotypes of the parents?

18. A family of six includes four children, each of whom has a different blood type: A, B, AB and O.
What are the genotypes of the parents?
 19. For each of the following pairs of parental genotypes, calculate the phenotypic ratios for the F1
generation.

AA x OO AA x AB AA x BO AA x AO AO x AO AO x AB

Sex-linked Inheritance

20. What would be the result if a woman who is a carrier of the colour-blindness gene – but has
normal vision has children with a man who has normal vision?

21. What would be the result if a woman who is a carrier of haemophilia has children for a man who
has haemophilia?

22. Colour blindness for red-green vision is due to a recessive gene in humans. A father is colour
blind and the mother has normal vision, with no evidence of colour blindness In her ancestry.
a. What is the probability that their son will be colour blind?
b. Their daughter?
c. Their grandson, if the grandson is the son of the daughter?

23. Red-green colour blindness is inherited as a sex-linked recessive trait. If a colour blind woman
marries a man who has normal vision what would be the expected phenotypes of their children
with reference to this trait?

24. A man and his wife both have normal colour vision, but their daughter has red-green colour
blindness, a sex-linked recessive trait. The man files for divorce on grounds of infidelity. Can
genetics provide evidence supporting his case?

Pedigree charts

A pedigree is a chart of a person’s ancestors that is used to analyze genetic inheritance of certain traits –
especially diseases.

25. Only people with the dominant gene, T, have the ability to taste certain chemicals. The pedigree
chart below shows the transmission of this gene in a family.

- male taster - male non-taster - female taster - female non-taster

P Q

R
a. What are the genotypes of females P and Q?
b. What is the chance that child R will be a taster?

26. Brown eyes are a dominant eye-colour allele and blue eyes are recessive. A brown-eyed woman
whose father had blue eyes and whose mother had brown eyes marries a brown-eyed man whose
parents are also brown-eyed. They have a son who is blue-eyed. Please draw a pedigree chart
showing all four grandparents, the two parents, and the son. Indicate which individuals you are
certain of their genotype and where there are more than one possibilities
27. The pedigree chart below shows a family’s pedigree for colour blindness.
a. Which sex can be carriers of colour blindness and not have it?
b. With this in mind, what kind of trait is colour blindness?
c. Why does individual IV-7 have colour blindness?
d. Why do all the daughters in generation II carry the colour blind gene?
e. Which 2 4th generation males are colour blind?

I
**half-shaded = carrier of disease

II

III

IV
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
28. The trait being shown in this pedigree chart is earlobe shape. Geneticists recognize two general
earlobe shapes; free lobes and attached lobes. The gene responsible for free earlobes (E) is
dominant over the gene for attached earlobes (e). Predict the genotypes for the individuals in the
pedigree chart below

II

III

a. What is the genotype of I-1?

b. What is the genotype of II-3?
c. What is the genotype of II-4?
d. Could child II-3 or II-4 be EE – yes/no? Explain.
e. Can an EE person married to an ee person (II-2), have children with free lobes (EE or Ee) –
yes/no? Do the Punnett square to prove your answer.
f. Can an Ee person married to an ee person (II-2), have children with free lobes (EE or Ee) –
yes/no? Do the Punnett square to prove your answer.