Learn Before Lecture (LBL) 3 Worksheet:

Dominance and Alleles (~30 min)

The purple flower allele in peas controls the phenotype since the heterozygote genotype makes a purple
phenotype, indistinguishable from the dominant homozygote genotype. This is an example of complete
dominance. However, not all alleles interact in such a straightforward manner. There are varying degrees of
allele interaction and dominance relationships.

Read pages 271-273, Examine Fig. 14.10
1. Color in Snapdragon flowers is determined by incomplete dominance.
a. Incomplete dominance is defined as:



b. The C
W
white allele codes for a mutant protein which cannot complete the formation of the red
pigment in snapdragon flowers. Thus a C
W
C
W
snapdragon cannot make any red pigment.
If a homozygous C
R
C
R
makes a full amount of red pigment, and a homozygous
C
W
C
W
cannot make any, how much red pigment does a heterozygote (C
R
C
W
)
snapdragon make?

c. Which of the following best explains why heterozygote snapdragons are pink?
x. the heterozygote flowers are making a pink pigment
y. the heterozygote flowers are making half as much red pigment
z. the heterozygote flowers are making red pigment and white pigment


Examine Fig 14.11
2. Blood groups in humans are determined by co-dominant alleles.
a. Co-dominance is defined as:




b. How is co-dominance different from incomplete
dominance?



Blood groups are an especially interesting genetics example because they illustrate another very important
point. Up until now, we have been exploring examples where there are only 2 possible alleles to fit into the 2
gene openings that are available in a diploid organism, such as humans. However, this is not always the case.
Some genes, such as the one for human blood groups, have multiple alleles available to fill the 2 spots.

3. Answer the following questions about multiple alleles
a. What are the three different alleles available for blood type?

b. How many different blood type alleles can one person carry?

c. What are the 4 different possible phenotypes present in the population?


4. BEFORE LECTURE 18 (Optional) If you can do so easily, find out your blood type.

a. What is your blood type?

b. What are the blood types of your biological parents (if you can find out)?
.
When neither allele is completely dominant, and the F1 hybrids
have a phenotype somewhere between those of the two parental
varieties.
It does not make red
pigment, rather it is
in the middle of the
white and red alleles.
y.
In this variation, the two alleles each affect
the phenotype in separate, distinguishable
ways.
Co-dominance is different because both the
phenotypes are exhibited by the heterozygotes,
rather than being an intermediate between the
two.
I
A
, I
B
, and i
Each person can
carry two
A, B, AB, and O
O
O