BIOL

2040 Genetics Problem Set 1 1. A rare recessive allele inherited in a Mendelian manner causes cystic fibrosis. A phenotypically normal woman whose mother had cystic fibrosis marries a phenotypically normal man from outside the family. The couple consider having a child. a) Draw the pedigree of the above inheritance. b) If the frequency in the population of heterozygotes for cystic fibrosis is 1 in 50, what is the chance that the couples first child will have cystic fibrosis? c) If the first child has cystic fibrosis, what is the probability that the second child will be normal. 2. In an attempt to simplify meiosis for the benefit of students, mad scientists develop a way of preventing pre-meiotic S phase and making do with having just one division, including pairing, crossing over, and segregation. Would this system work , and would the products differ from those of the present system? 3. From a large-scale screen of many plants of Collinsia grandiflora, a plant with three cotyledons was discovered (normally there are two cotyledons). This plant was crossed with a normal pure-breeding wild-type plant, and 600 seeds from this cross were planted. There were 298 plants with two cotyledons and 302 plants with three cotyledons. What can be deduced about this inheritance? Invent gene symbols to show your explanation.

4. A cell has two pairs of acrocentric chromosomes, 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b. (The a & b of each chromosome are the homologues.) Allele H is located on the long arm of chromosome 1a, and allele h is located at the same position on chromosome 1b. Allele M is located on the short arm of chromosome 1a, and allele m is located at the same position on chromosome 1b. Allele R is located on the long arm of chromosome 2a, and allele r is located at the same position on chromosome 2b. Draw these chromosomes, labelling genes H, h, M, m, R and r , as they might appear in a cell at metaphase I of meiosis.

5. If we measured the DNA in nuclei of a cell at the various stages of meiosis and mitosis and found that there is 12 picograms (pg) in a single nucleus at metaphase II, indicate how much DNA is present in a single nucleus at he following stages. For each of the following stages, also state the number of nuclear DNA molecules present in a human cell given human cells have 46 chromosomes. a) G1 b) Prophase I c) Metaphase of mitosis d) Metaphase I of meiosis e) G2 f) Telophase of mitosis g) Telophase I of meiosis

h) Telophase II of meiosis

6. Seedless watermelons are triploid, which prevents normal meiosis from taking place. Triploid (3n) watermelons are produced by crossing a tetraploid (4n) strain with a diploid (2n) plant. Briefly explain why this mating procedure produces a triploid individual. Why can mitosis proceed normally in triploid cells when meiosis cannot? To get you started, here is a diagram outlining how to get triploid individuals it is the gametes of this individual that we are concerned with (why can this individual not produce viable embryos?)

7. CHI SQUARE (2) TEST (use the Table 1.2 probability table of chi-square values) a) Table 1.1: Deviation between expected and observed numbers of elephants with flat ears or wrinkled ones, if flat ears are dominant to wrinkled ears. Observed Expected Deviation (O E)2 (O E)2 (O) (E) (O E) E 128 Flat ears Wrinkled ears TOTAL 52 180 2 =

b) Are your observed results significantly different than your expected results? Briefly explain.