Lecture Assignment

Mendelian Genetics and Patterns of Inheritance

Important Note: For all the problems described in this assignment, it is more important that you show the
steps that you work to get to the final answer. Your approach to each problem will carry more points than
just your final answer. If you merely provide the correct answer without showing the steps that led you to
the final answer, you will get lesser points, than if you show the steps (indicator for your level of
comprehension of concepts) and end up with an incorrect final answer.
1. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an autosomal recessive disorder that causes mental impairment and
reduced hair and skin pigmentation. What is the probability that a woman with PKU and a man
heterozygous for PKU will have a child with PKU?

2. Yvette is blood type A and her mother is blood type O. Yvette marries Edward who is blood type
AB.
a. What is Yvettes genotype for her blood type?

b. What is Edwards genotype for his blood type?

c.

Using Punnett square, determine the probability of the couple having a child with:
i. blood type A:

ii. blood type B:

iii. blood type AB:

iv. blood type O:

d. Yvette and Edward get divorced (oh, no!). Yvette starts dating Daniel
whose blood
type is O. If they decide to have children (come on, give me a break!), what is the
probability of them having a child with blood type O?

3. Familial hypercholesterolemia is an autosomal dominant condition that results in abnormally

high levels of cholesterol and increased risk of heart disease. Susanne has hypercholesterolemia
and is concerned about passing this phenotype to her children. Her father also has
hypercholesterolemia, but her mother and sister do not.
a. What are all the possible genotypes of Susannes mother and father that will tally with
the information provided above?

b. What is Susannes genotype?

c.

If Susanne marries Alex who does not have hypercholesterolemia, what is the probability
of their children having this disorder?

4. A man heterozygous for both a widows peak and with a straight thumb marries a woman with a
straight hairline and heterozygous for a straight thumb.
a. What are the genotypes of the parents?

b. What are the gametes produced by the parents?

c.

Using a Punnett square, determine the genotypes and phenotypes of their children.

d. What is the phenotypic ratio for this cross?

5. Fragile X syndrome is an X-linked recessive disorder that causes mental impairment. Melissa
who is a carrier for X-syndrome marries John (normal).
a. What are the genotypes and phenotypes of the sons?
b. What are the genotypes and phenotypes of the daughters?

c.

What is the probability they will have a child with fragile X syndrome?

6. Hemophilia is a sex-linked recessive disease that causes reduced blood clotting, which can result
in increased bruising and excessive bleeding. Albinism (autosomal recessive) is characterized
by a lack of pigment in the skin, eyes and hair.
Irina has hemophilia and is unaffected by albinism. Irenas mother has unpigmented skin, eyes
and hair. Irina marries Kevin who is an albino, but not hemophiliac.
a. What is Irinas genotype?

b. What is Kevins genotype?

c.

What are the possible genotypes and phenotypes of their children?

d. What is the probability of having a child with hemophilia that will also be an
albino? If such a phenotype is possible for the genotypes of Irinas and Kevins,
what gender will the child be?