Genetics Problems

1. In cats, the allele for long whiskers is dominant over the allele for short whiskers. If a
homozygous recessive cat is mated with a homozygous dominant cat, what possible
offspring can they produce?
2. In mice, white fur is dominant over black fur. If two homozygous mice, one white and
one black, are crossed, what will the genotypes and phenotypes of their offspring be? If
two of those offspring are crossed, what will the resulting offsprings genotype and
phenotype be?

3. The ability to curl your tongue up on the sides (T, tongue rolling) is dominant to not
being able to roll your tongue. A woman who can roll her tongue marries a man who
cannot. Their first child has his father's phenotype. What are the genotypes of the mother,
father, and child?
4. In labs, black fur color is dominant to brown fur. A testcross is being performed to
determine the alleles for fur color present in black lab. What type of dog should the black
lab be mixed with to determine its alleles? What would the alleles of the black lab be if it
produced brown puppies? If it produced all black puppies?

5. In northeast Kansas there is a creature know as a wildcat. It comes in three colors, blue,
red, and purple. This trait is controlled by a single locus gene with incomplete
dominance. A homozygous (BB) individual is blue, a homozygous (bb) individual is red,
and a heterozygous (Bb) individual is purple. What would be the genotypes and
phenotypes of the offspring if a blue wildcat were crossed with a red one?

6. In humans, brown eyes (B) are dominant over blue (b). A brown-eyed man marries a
blue-eyed woman and they have three children, two of whom are brown-eyed and one of
whom is blue-eyed. Draw the Punnett square that illustrates this marriage. What is the
mans genotype? What are the genotypes of the children?
7. In dogs, there is a hereditary deafness caused by a recessive gene, d. A kennel owner
has a male dog that she wants to use for breeding purposes if possible. The dog can
hear, so the owner knows his genotype is either DD or Dd. If the dogs genotype is Dd,
the owner does not wish to use him for breeding so that the deafness gene will not be
passed on. This can be tested by breeding the dog to a deaf female (dd). Draw the
Punnett squares to illustrate these two possible crosses. In each case, what

percentage/how many of the offspring would be expected to be hearing? Deaf? How

could you tell the genotype of this male dog? Also, using Punnett square(s), show how
two hearing dogs could produce deaf offspring.
a. A deaf female is genotype dd. What kind(s) of gametes can she produce?
b. If the hearing male is DD, what kind(s) of gametes can he produce?
c. If he is Dd, what kinds of gametes can he produce?

8. Wolves are sometimes observed to have black coats and blue eyes. Assume that these
traits are controlled by single locus genes and are located on different chromosomes.
Assume further that grey coat color (G) is dominant to black (g) and brown eyes (B) are
dominant to blue (b). Suppose the alpha male and alpha female of a pack (these are the
dominant individuals who do most of the breeding) are black with blue eyes and grey
colored with brown eyes, respectively. The female is also heterozygous for both traits.
Draw the Punnett square.

9. In fruit flies, Long wing (L) is dominant to short wing (l).

Predict the outcome of the following monohybrid crosses. Give the (1) Parental
genotypes; (2) Genotypic Ratio; (3) Phenotypic Ratio
a. Cross two homozygous long winged flies.
b. Cross two heterozygous long winged flies.
c. Cross a heterozygous fly with a fly homozygous for long wings.
d. Cross two short winged flies.
e. Cross a short winged fly with a homozygous long winged fly.
f. Cross a short winged fly with a heterozygous fly.
10. The parents of a short haired male guinea pig were both long haired. The short haired
male is mated with a long haired female whose father was long haired and mother was
short haired. The male and female guinea pig have one offspring that is short haired.
What is the genotype of each of the guinea pigs?
11. A woman has blood type A and genotype IAi, while her husband has blood type B and
genotype IBi. What blood types are possible for the offspring?
12. Red/Green colorblindness is a sex-linked recessive trait found on the X chromosome. A
woman with R/G colorblindness and a man with normal vision have a baby. The mans
mother was heterozygous for R/G colorblindness. What probability is there that their
baby has normal vision? What is the probability of normal vision if its a girl? What is
the probability of normal vision if its a boy?

13. What is the expected genotypic ratio among children born to a mother having the
genotype IAiO and a father with the phenotype AB?
14. In a court case, the Lights claim that their child cant be theirs, and must belong to
another family, the Brights. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bright have type A blood, and Mr. Light
has type O blood and Mrs. Light has type AB blood. The child 1 at the Brights house has
type O blood and the child 2 at the Lights house has type A blood. Using this
information, give the genotypes of all of the individuals involved and tell which child
belongs to which family.

15. In Clarkia elegans plants, the allele for white flowers is recessive to the allele for orange
flowers. Pollen from a heterozygous orange flower is placed on the stigma of a white
flower. What is the expected ratio of phenotypes of the offspring?

16. In a cross between a black and a white guinea pig, all members of the F1 generation are
black. The F2 generation is made up of approximately 3/4 black and 1/4 white guinea
pigs. a. Which allele is dominant? b. Determine the genotypes and phenotypes of each
generation.
17. Albinism in humans is inherited as a simple recessive trait. For the following families,
determine the genotypes of the parents and offspring. When two alternative genotypes are
possible, list both.
a. Two non-albino (normal) parents have five children, four normal and one albino.
b. A normal male and an albino female have six children, all normal.
18. In Mendel's experiments, if the gene for red (R) flowers was incompletely dominant over
the gene for white (r) flowers, what would be the result of crossing two Rr plants?
19. Roger, whose parents both had type O blood, marries a woman, Sally, with type A blood.
Sallys parents were type AB & type B. If Roger & Sally have a grandchild with type B
blood, what possible blood types could the childs parents have?

20. Chris, whose mom had blood type AB, has a child with blood type B. What possible
blood types can Chris father and wife have?

21. Chris and Mary have a child with blood type B. Chris parents have blood type A & O.
Mary has three siblings with blood type O, blood type A, & blood type B. What are Chris
& Marys possible blood types?
22. Tay-Sachs disease and Sickle cell anemia are both recessive genetic diseases. Tay Sachs
disease is an example of a trait with complete dominance while sickle cell anemia is an
example of incomplete dominance. What would the genotypes and phenotypes of the
children be for each of the following families?
a. A man who is heterozygous for T.Sachs marries a woman homozygous
(Recessive or dominant?) for T.Sachs.
b. A man heterozygous for sickle cell anemia marries a woman who is also
heterozygous for sickle cell anemia.
c. A man who is heterozygous for T.Sachs and homozygous recessive for sickle cell
anemia marries a woman who has no trace of T.Sachs but has mild symptoms
(carrier) of sickle cell anemia.

Gene Regulation
Explain the stages of gene transcription.

Explain the stages of gene translation.