1. Who is widely considered to be the father of genetics?
a) Gregory Mendel
b) G. H. Hardy
c) William Bateson
d) Reginald Punnett
2. What is the apprentice of an organism or the trait that is seen?
a) genotype
b) Punnett square
c) allele
d) phenotype
3. Why are Punnett squares used?
a) To physically help scientists understand physics
b) to help author books on genetics
c) To determine the probability that an offspring would have a specific trait
d) To decode the human genome
3. To determine the probability that an offspring would have a specific trait.
(Note: the answer to question 1 is a) Gregor Mendel and the answer to question 2 is d) phenotype)
The offspring are represented by the four boxes and carry each box represents 25% chance that the offspring will carry a particular trait.
The offspring will have a dominant genotype unless two recessive alleles are passed to it.
1. Homozygous Dominant - Ex. RR
2. Heterozygous - Ex. Rr
3. Homozygous Recessive - Ex. rr
1)What percent chance will the offspring have red flowers?
2) What combination of parent genotypes would assure that the offspring would have white flowers?
1) If the red flower trait is dominant and represented by the allele R, and the white flower trait is recessive and represented by the allele r, then the probability of the offspring having red flowers would depend on the genotypes of the parents. If one parent has a homozygous dominant genotype (RR) and the other parent has a heterozygous genotype (Rr), the Punnett square would show that there is a 100% chance (all offspring would be RR) that the offspring will have red flowers.
2) To assure that the offspring would have white flowers, both parents would need to have a homozygous recessive genotype (rr). If both parents have the genotype rr, then all the offspring produced would receive a recessive allele from each parent, resulting in a 100% chance of the offspring having white flowers.
1. The father of genetics is a) Gregory Mendel.
2. The apprentice of an organism or the trait that is seen is d) phenotype.
3. Punnett squares are used to c) determine the probability that an offspring would have a specific trait.