Harry Potter and the Goblet of Punnetts

There are lots of genetic traits described in the Harry Potter books. Can you think of any?
All the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
-- Draco Malfoy (Sorcerers Stone, Ch.6)
Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.
(Sorcerers Stone, Ch.1)

What are some of the phenotypes described in the above quotes?

Lets look at a couple of examples!

Two possible phenotypes for freckles are:
Has Freckles
No freckles
A genotype for freckles is indicated by two alleles in the freckle gene.
The possible alleles using the first letter of the trait f are:
F (dominant) = Has Freckles
f (recessive) = No freckles
Question: Using F and f, what are possible genotypes and phenotypes of the allele pair for
freckles?

Red hair color is recessive to brown color. One way to describe the hair color alleles are:
Red hair = r
Brown hair = R

Question: Using r (red hair) and R (brown hair) alleles, what possible genotypes and
phenotypes of the allele pair are there?

Excellent! How lets look at how the Weasleys genetics are affecting what their children look
like!

Mom has freckles and dad has none. And each parent has a homozygous genotype (the two
alleles in the gene are the same).
Their genotypes are:
Mom:______________
Dad:______________
So, we now know what the parents are bringing to the genetic table. We use a punnett square
to figure out the probability of a child being born with a certain
genotype and phenotype.

On the left is a punnett square! Woah! Neat!

On the outside lines, fill in each allele that the mom
would give, and do the same for the dad.
Next, add together the parents alleles to
figure out the genotypes of each of the Weasley
children. (IE: the top left box will have the allele from
mom written above it, and allele for dad will be written
to the left of if.)

What is the percent chance that a child born to the Weasley family will have freckles?

What happens if both mom and

genotypes are heterozygous (the
different)?

dad have freckles whose

two alleles in the gene are

Their genotypes are:

Mom:______________
Dad:______________

Now what is the percent change a Weasley child will be born with freckles?

All Weasley children have freckles and red hair. Use the Punnett Square to predict the most
likely genotypes of Molly and Arthur Weasley for the two traits. Use the following allele
possibilities that we identified previously:
r = Red hair
Mollys Genotype:____ ____
R = Brown hair
Arthurs Genotype: ____ ____
F = Has Freckles
f = No
freckles

Harry has dark/brown hair like his father, but his mom had red hair. Using the genotypes of rr,
Rr, and RR, what possible genotypes does each of the Potters have?

Lily Potter ____ ____

James Potter ____ ____
Harry Potter _____ ____

Harry marries Ginny who has red hair. What are possible genotypes of their childrens hair
colors?

Harry Potter ____ ____

Ginny Weasley ____ ____