Real Life Genetics Online Activity

Activity 1:  http://ib.berkeley.edu/courses/ib162/Week3a.htm

1.) What assumptions about the inheritance of alleles must you make to use a test-cross to determine the genotype of an individual expressing the dominant phenotype?
In the inheritance of alleles, you must assume that both dominants or at least one dominant is present in the genotype.


2.) How would you determine the genotype of an agouti cat?
Agouti is determined by the dominant agouti allele, A. In contrast, hairs on non-agouti cats are unbanded, producing a solidly colored coat, such a cat is homozygous for the non-agouti allele (aa) at the agouti locus. In short, the genotype would be AA or Aa.


3.) Why do population geneticists prefer to work with codominant genes?
Population Geneticists prefer to work with codominant genes so in that way, they can experiment different genes that come up with different phenotypes.


4.) Develop a table describing the possible genotypes and their phenotypes that could result from a cross between a tortoiseshell and a black cat. Assume both cats are homozygous BB.
BB. 
B B
B BB BB
B BB BB


5.) What effect might a striped (vs. solid) coat have on the fitness of a wild cat?
The effect might happen is that the thick fur might slow the cat down. Someday a predator might chase it and the cat will be extra slow due to the fur thickness.

6.) If you mated two white cats, would you be confident of always obtaining white progeny? Explain.
I would be 75% confident because there is a 75% chance of it being white and a 25% of it being spotted.

 7.) What factors determine allele frequency? Is a dominant allele always the most frequent allele at a locus? 

Factors that determine allele frequency is based on the alleles of the parents and the probability of the allele being dominant as oppose to the recessive. Also, Dominant allele will NOT be always the most frequent allele at a locus because the parents can have recessive and that can carry out onto the alleles' of the next generation to have also recessive.

8.) Manx cats have no tail and relatively long rear legs. What is the genotype of a Manx cat? Do you expect the frequency of Manx cats to increase over time? Why or why not?

The genotype of a Manx cat would be tt. No is my response for the the second question because since the genotype is tt , the reproduction of alleles and genes will only have tt thus making tt replicants.

Activity 2: http://www.stat.ucla.edu/cases/ 

1.) Under this model, what is the chance of agreement between the observed and expected frequencies of

smooth and wrinkled as close as that reported by Mendel, or closer?
This theory would predict 75% smooth and 25% wrinkled among the cross of two first-generation hybrids -- 3 s for every 1 w. Mendel did it 7324 times and got 5474/7324 = 74.7% smooth and 1850/7324 = 25.3% wrinkled.

2.) What do you conclude on the basis of this one set of results about whether he fudged his data?

I conclude that Mendel's theory is right but according to fisher, Mendel's gardening assistant messed his experiment up but for me, Mendel's experiment is pretty accurate and reliable according to the the experiments he did.

 

Activity 3: http://www.biology.arizona.edu/human_bio/problem_sets/blood_types/Intro.html

1. Is a type O possible in this situation? Yes, type O is possible in this situation.
2. Possible blood types of offspring? Possible blood types are A, B, AB, or O.
3. What blood type would the father be? Blood type AB.
4. What are the potential blood types of the father of my son?  Either blood type A or B.
5. Who is NOT the father of my grandson? One who has Blood type O.
6. Do we all have the same biological father? No.
7. Is it possible to have a different blood type that either of your parents? Definitely yes!