Caitlyn Heelan

Z-23250701
Wed. & Fri. 2 pm -3:50

Genetics Exam 1 Practice Questions:

Chapter 1

1. What are three reasons genetics is important to all of us?

 Genetics is important for agricultural reasons, such as genetically engineering food for higher
output and larger sizes of crops. Genetics is important for pharmaceutical reasons, because
genetically engineered bacteria and other cells produce things like vaccines and growth
hormones. Genetics is important in medicine, because a lot of diseases and disorders have
hereditary components and genetics allow us to understand the nature of them.

2. What is a gene?

 A gene is a genetic factor that helps determine a trait; often defined at the molecular level as a
DNA sequence that is transcribed into an RNA molecule.

3. Explain the major contributions that the following individuals made to the study of genetics:

1. Gregor Mendel
 Discovered principles of heredity by crossing different varieties of pea plants and
analyzing the transmission of traits in subsequent generations.
2. Sutton and Boveri
Sutton proposed that genes, the units of inheritance, are located on chromosomes.
3. Watson and Crick
Described 3D structure of DNA in 1953.
4. Thomas Morgan
Discovered the first genetic mutant of fruit flies in 1910 and used fruit flies to unravel
many details of transmission genetics.

4. What are the model genetic systems?

1. Bacterium – Escherichia coli

2. Baker’s yeast – Saccharomyces cerevisiae
3. Thale-cress plant – Arabidopsis thaliana
4. Nematode – Caenorhabditis elegans
5. Fruit fly – Drosophila melanogaster
6. Honey bee – Apis mellifera
7. Zebrafish – Danio rerio
8. House mouse – Mus musculus

5. Describe the flow of genetic information (central dogma):

 The central dogma states that genetic information passes from DNA to protein in a one-way
information pathway. In addition to the three general information pathways of replication,
translation, and transcription, other transfers may take place in certain organisms.
DNA→RNA→Protein
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Z-23250701
Wed. & Fri. 2 pm -3:50

Chapter 2

6. What is a chromosome?

 A chromosome is a structure consisting of DNA and associated proteins that carries and
transmits genetic information.

7. Which of the following is a diploid structure or haploid structure?

a. Microspore - haploid
b. megaspore - haploid
c. egg - haploid
d. microsporeocyte - diploid
e. spermatogonium - diploid
f. spermatid - haploid
g. oogonium - diploid
h. ovum - haploid

8. An oogonium has 8 chromosomes. After the completion of Meiosis I, how many chromosomes will
the secondary oocyte contain?

a. 2
b. 4
c. 6
d. 8

9. Two species of the same genus have a different number of chromosomes. Species A has 8
chromosomes, while species B has 22. In which species will one see more genetic variation among
the progeny? Human cells have 46 chromosomes, how many different chromosome combinations in
the gametes are possible?

 There will be more genetic variation in species B because there is more opportunity for
differences with a larger number of chromosomes. There are 8,324,608 possible combinations
of the 23 chromosome pairs.

10. For an individual, the gene responsible for eye development can be found in the cells of this
individual’s feet.

True or False? Why?

 Inside each of our body’s cells deep inside each nucleus 46 chromosomes, divided into 23 pairs,
each one containing a portion of our gene responsible for our eye color

11. For an individual, his skin cells have the same mitochondrial DNA as in his liver cells.

True or False? Why?

 Both are somatic cells

 Caitlyn Heelan
Z-23250701
Wed. & Fri. 2 pm -3:50

12. What process is shown in the figure? The diploid chromosome number in this organism is four. The
letters stand for different alleles of genes.

 Anaphase II
Chapter 3

13. How to use the multiplication rule and the addition rule?

 The addition rule is used in cases using “either, or”, probability of two or more mutually
exclusive events is the sum of the individual properties. The multiplication rule is used in cases
using “and”, probability of two or more independent events determined by multiplying
probabilities of each

14. What type of cross could you carry out to determine if a trait is recessive or dominant?

 Monohybrid cross

What type of cross could you carry out to determine unknown genotypes?
 Testcross

15. The probability that a fruit will have an oval shape is 1/4. The probability that a fruit will have a
round shape is 1/2. What is the probability that the fruit will have either an oval or a round shape?

 3/4

16. What is the phenotypic ratio of the F2 generation in a dihybrid cross?

 9:3:3:1

17. In Labrador retrievers, black coat color is dominant to brown. Suppose that a black Lab is mated with
a brown one and the offspring are 4 black puppies and 1 brown. What is the genotype of the black
parent?

 Bb

18. Two gene loci, A and B, assort independently, and alleles A and B are dominant over alleles a and b.
Indicate the probabilities of producing the following:

1. An AB gamete from an AaBb individual? 1/4

2. An AABB zygote from a cross AaBb × AaBb? 1/16

3. An AB phenotype from a cross AaBb × AaBb? 1/16

4. An aB phenotype from a cross AaBb × AaBB? 1/8

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Z-23250701
Wed. & Fri. 2 pm -3:50

19. Alkaptonuria is a metabolic disorder in which affected persons produce black urine. Alkaptonuria
results from an allele (a) that is recessive to the allele for normal metabolism (A). Sally has normal
metabolism, but her brother has alkaptonuria. Sally’s father has alkaptonuria, and her mother has
normal metabolism.
a. Give the genotypes of Sally, her mother, her father, and her brother.
 Mother = Aa  Sally = Aa
 Father = aa  Brother = aa

b. If Sally’s parents have another child, what is the probability that this child will have alkaptonuria?

 1/2

c. If Sally marries a man with alkaptonuria, what is the probability that their first child will have
alkaptonuria?

 1/2

Chapter 4

20. From which of the following people could the children have inherited an X-linked disease?

 Their mother’s mother

 Their mother’s father
 Their father’s mother
 Their father’s father

21. In organisms with ZZ-ZW sex-determining system, from which of the following possibilities can a
female inherit her Z chromosome?

 Her mother’s mother

 Her mother’s father
 Her father’s mother
 Her father’s father

22. Red-green color blindness in humans is due to an X-linked recessive gene. A woman whose father is
color blind possesses one eye with normal color vision and one eye with color blindness. Propose an
explanation for this woman’s vision pattern. Assume that no new mutations have spontaneously
arisen.

 The woman must have a disorder that decreases color vision in only one eye. It is not possible
for color blindness to pass to only one eye. If she was actually colorblind, she would have
inherited it from both parents because that is the only way a female can be colorblind.
 Caitlyn Heelan
Z-23250701
Wed. & Fri. 2 pm -3:50

23. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a recessive disease. Joe, who is not diseased, has a sister with CF. Neither of his
parents have CF. What is the probability that Joe is heterozygous for the CF gene? What is the
probability that Joe does not have the CF allele?

 1/2 that he is heterozygous, 1/4 that he does not have the allele

24. While doing field work in Madagascar, you discover a new dragonfly species that has either red (R) or
clear (r) wings. Initial crosses indicate that R is dominant to r. You perform three crosses using three
different sets of red-winged parents with unknown genotype and observe the following data:
 Cross Phenotypes 1: 72 red-winged, 24 clear-winged
 Cross Phenotypes 2: 3 red-winged
 Cross Phenotypes 3: 96 red-winged.
What is the most likely genotype for each pair of parents?
1. Rr x Rr
2. Rr x Rr
3. RR x Rr

Chapter 5

25. A man of what blood group could not be the father of a child of blood type AB?

 A man of O blood group

26. If there are five alleles at a locus, how many genotypes may there be at this locus? How many
different kinds of homozygotes will there be?

 For five alleles (n = 5), there are 15 possible genotypes and 5 kinds of homozygotes

27. Patterned baldness is more frequent in males than in females. The appreciable difference in
frequency is assumed to result from

a. Y-linked traits
b. X-linked recessive traits
c. Sex-influenced autosomal inheritance
d. Too Much beer drinking

28. How could one tell the difference between cytoplasmic inheritance and genetic maternal effect?

Maternal inheritance – a form of inheritance wherein the traits of the offspring are maternal in origin
due to the expression of extra-nuclear DNA present in the ovum during fertilization.

Genetic maternal effect – situation where the phenotype of an organism is determined not only by the
environment it experiences and its genotype, but also by the environment and genotype of its mother.
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Z-23250701
Wed. & Fri. 2 pm -3:50

29. In sheep, white fleece (W) is dominant over black (w), and horned (H) is dominant over hornless (h)
in males, but recessive in females. Assuming no interactions between genes, if a homozygous horned
white ram is bred to a homozygous hornless black ewe, what will be the appearances of the F1 and
the F2 sheep?

 WWHH x wwhh; F1 will only be white horned, F2 will be 9:3:3:1.

30. A plant that is heterozygous for a trait that displays incomplete dominance. If it is used in a test cross,
what proportion of the progeny will be homozygous recessive?

 Aa x Aa; 1/4 will be homozygous recessive.

31. Assume that hairy toes (hh) and brittle ear wax (ww) are both recessive traits in humans, and these
loci assort independently. In a family where both parents are heterozygotes at both loci (they have
smooth toes and sticky ear wax). What is the probability that the family will have one hairy-toed,
brittle ear-waxed boy?

 Hh x Ww; 1/4 will have one hairy-toed, brittle ear-waxed boy

32. The inability to make the pigment melanin results in albinism, a recessive condition. Two normal
parents have a first child that is albino (genotype aa). What is the probability of the second child
who is normal? What is the probability of the second child who is albino?
 Aa x Aa; 1/4
Chapter 6

33. Consider the following pedigree, in which the allele responsible for trait (a) is recessive to the normal
allele (A):

a. What is the genotype of the mother? aa

b. What is the genotype of the father? Aa
c. What are the genotypes of the five children?
1. aa
2. Aa
3. aa
4. aa
5. Aa

34. Are the traits in the following two pedigrees recessive or dominant?

 Pedigree A – dominant
 Pedigree B – recessive
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Z-23250701
Wed. & Fri. 2 pm -3:50

35. How can you distinguish between an autosomal recessive trait with higher penetrance in males and
an X-linked recessive trait?

 If it is an X-linked recessive trait, it will not be passed from father to son.

An autosomal recessive traits tend to skip generations and affected offspring are usually born from
unaffected parents.

36. Why might an autosomal dominant trait skip a generation?

 When one parent has an autosomal dominant condition and the other does not, the trait has a
50% chance of being passed on which could lead to the trait skipping a generation.

37. The genetic difference between monozygotic twins is about ___0%__. The genetic difference
between dizygotic twins is about _50%_. The genetic difference between non-twin, biological
brothers (or sisters or brother/sister) is about ___100%___.

38. A disease has a prevalence of 0.1%. A test to detect this disease has a false positive rate of 5%. What
is the chance that a person found to have a positive result actually has the disease?
 (. 0001 𝑥 1) + (0.05 𝑥 0.999) = 0.01998 ≈ 2%