Question

A man is suing his wife for divorce on the grounds of infidelity. Their first and second child, whom they both claim, are of blood groups O and AB, respectively. The third child, whom the man disclaim, is blood type B. (a) Can this information (ABO blood type) be used to support the mans case? (b) Another test was made using the M-N blood group system. The third child was group M, the father was group N. Can this information (M-N blood type) be used to support the mans case?

(a) First child (blood group O), therefore each parent must be carrying the recessive allele. Second child (blood group AB), therefore one parent must be carrying the dominant A allele while the other must be carrying the dominant B allele. Thus, the marriage of AO x BO can possibly result in children with A, B or O (phenotype) blood groups. This information (ABO blood type) cannot be used to support the mans case.

Question
A man is suing his wife for divorce on the grounds of infidelity. Their first and second child, whom they both claim, are of blood groups O and AB, respectively. The third child, whom the man disclaim, is blood type B. (a) Can this information (ABO blood type) be used to support the mans case? (b) Another test was made using the M-N blood group system. The third child was group M, the father was group N. Can this information (M-N blood type) be used to support the mans case?

(b) With M-N blood grouping system, the blood groups are governed by a pair of codominant alleles, M and N, where phenotyically groups M and N are produced by homozygous genotypes. A group N father must pass the LN allele to his offspring and they would in turn ALL have the N antigen on their red blood cells, i.e., they would either be group N or NM phenotypically (depending on the genotype of the mother). Thus, the group N father can only have a group N or MN child (depending on the mothers genotype). This man could not have fathered a group M child.

OTHER FORMS OF GENE INTERACTION or EPISTASIS

F2 ratios

Genotypes: Classical dihybrid ratio Dominant epistasis Recessive epistasis Duplicate genes with cumulative effect Duplicate dominant genes Duplicate recessive genes (comple. loci) Dominant and recessive interaction

A_B_ A_bb aaB_ aabb 9 3 3 1 12 3 1 9 3 4 9 1 6 15 9 13 7 3 1

OTHER FORMS OF GENE INTERACTION or EPISTASIS

Duplicate genes with cumulative effect F2 ratio: 9 : 6: 1 Duplicated genes with cumulative effect occurs - if the dominant condition (either homozygous or heterozygous) at either locus (but not both) produces the same phenotype.
Example: When the epistatic genes are involved in producing various amounts of a substance such as pigment, the dominant genotypes of each locus may be considered to produce one unit of pigment independently. Thus, genotype A_bb and aaB_ produce one unit of pigment each and therefore have the same phenotype. The genotype aabb does not produce any pigment, while with the A_B_ genotype, the effect is cumulative and two units of pigment is produced.

A_ pigment Duplicate dominant genes? Dominant and recessive interaction?

B_

Example: Q4, CA2, Sem 2 2005/6