Chromosomal
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____
1. Why did the improvement of microscopy techniques in the late 1800s set the stage for the emergence
of modern genetics?
a. It revealed new and unanticipated features of Mendel's pea plant varieties.
b. It allowed the study of meiosis and mitosis, revealing parallels between behaviors
of genes and chromosomes.
c. It allowed scientists to see the DNA present within chromosomes.
d. It led to the discovery of mitochondria.
e. It showed genes functioning to direct the formation of enzymes.
____
2. When Thomas Hunt Morgan crossed his red-eyed
generation flies to each other, the
generation included both red- and white-eyed flies. Remarkably, all the white-eyed flies were male.
What was the explanation for this result?
a. The gene involved is on the X chromosome.
b. The gene involved is on the Y chromosome.
c. The gene involved is on an autosome.
d. Other male-specific factors influence eye color in flies.
e. Other female-specific factors influence eye color in flies.
____
3. Morgan and his colleagues worked out a set of symbols to represent fly genotypes. Which of the
following are representative?
a. AaBb  AaBb
b. 46, XY or 46, XX
c. vg+vgse+se  vgvgsese
d. +2  +3
____
4. Sturtevant provided genetic evidence for the existence of four pairs of chromosomes in Drosophila
in which of these ways?
a. There are four major functional classes of genes in Drosophila.
b. Drosophila genes cluster into four distinct groups of linked genes.
c. The overall number of genes in Drosophila is a multiple of four.
d. The entire Drosophila genome has approximately 400 map units.
e. Drosophila genes have, on average, four different alleles.
____
5. A man with Klinefelter syndrome (47, XXY) is expected to have any of the following EXCEPT
a. lower sperm count.
b. possible breast enlargement.
c. increased testosterone.
d. long limbs.
e. female body characteristics.
____
6. A woman is found to have 47 chromosomes, including 3 X chromosomes. Which of the following
describes her expected phenotype?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
____
Masculine characteristics such as facial hair
Enlarged genital structures
Excessive emotional instability
Normal female
Sterile female
7. Males are more often affected by sex-linked traits than females because
a. males are hemizygous for the X chromosome.
b. male hormones such as testosterone often alter the effects of mutations on the X
chromosome.
c. female hormones such as estrogen often compensate for the effects of mutations on
the X.
d. X chromosomes in males generally have more mutations than X chromosomes in
females.
e. mutations on the Y chromosome often worsen the effects of X-linked mutations.
____
8. What is the chromosomal system for determining sex in mammals?
a. Haploid-diploid
b. X-0
c. X-X
d. X-Y
e. Z-W
____
9. What is the chromosomal system for sex determination in birds?
a. Haploid-diploid
b. X-0
c. X-X
d. X-Y
e. Z-W
____ 10. What is the chromosomal system of sex determination in most species of ants and bees?
a. Haploid-diploid
b. X-0
c. X-X
d. X-Y
e. Z-W
____ 11. SRY is best described in which of the following ways?
a. A gene region present on the Y chromosome that triggers male development
b. A gene present on the X chromosome that triggers female development
c. An autosomal gene that is required for the expression of genes on the Y
chromosome
d. An autosomal gene that is required for the expression of genes on the X
chromosome
e. Required for development, and males or females lacking the gene do not survive
past early childhood
____ 12. In cats, black fur color is caused by an X-linked allele; the other allele at this locus causes orange
color. The heterozygote is tortoiseshell. What kinds of offspring would you expect from the cross of
a black female and an orange male?
a. Tortoiseshell females; tortoiseshell males
b. Black females; orange males
c. Orange females; orange males
d. Tortoiseshell females; black males
e. Orange females; black males
____ 13. Red-green color blindness is a sex-linked recessive trait in humans. Two people with normal color
vision have a color-blind son. What are the genotypes of the parents?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
and
and
and
and
and
____ 14. Cinnabar eyes is a sex-linked recessive characteristic in fruit flies. If a female having cinnabar eyes
is crossed with a wild-type male, what percentage of the
a. 0%
b. 25%
c. 50%
d. 75%
e. 100%
males will have cinnabar eyes?
____ 15. Calico cats are female because
a. a male inherits only one of the two X-linked genes controlling hair color.
b. the males die during embryonic development.
c. the Y chromosome has a gene blocking orange coloration.
d. only females can have Barr bodies.
e. multiple crossovers on the Y chromosome prevent orange pigment production.
____ 16. In birds, sex is determined by a ZW chromosome scheme. Males are ZZ and females are ZW. A
recessive lethal allele that causes death of the embryo is sometimes present on the Z chromosome in
pigeons. What would be the sex ratio in the offspring of a cross between a male that is heterozygous
for the lethal allele and a normal female?
a. 2:1 male to female
b. 1:2 male to female
c. 1:1 male to female
d. 4:3 male to female
e. 3:1 male to female
Refer to the following information to answer the questions below.
A man who is an achondroplastic dwarf with normal vision marries a color-blind woman of normal
height. The man's father was six feet tall, and both the woman's parents were of average height.
Achondroplastic dwarfism is autosomal dominant, and red-green color blindness is X-linked
recessive.
____ 17. How many of their daughters might be expected to be color-blind dwarfs?
a. All
b. None
c. Half
d. One out of four
e. Three out of four
____ 18. What proportion of their sons would be color-blind and of normal height?
a. All
b. None
c. Half
d. One out of four
e. Three out of four
____ 19. They have a daughter who is a dwarf with normal color vision. What is the probability that she is
heterozygous for both genes?
a. 0
b. 0.25
c. 0.50
d. 0.75
e. 1.00
____ 20. A Barr body is normally found in the nucleus of which kind of human cell?
a. Unfertilized egg cells only
b. Sperm cells only
c. Somatic cells of a female only
d. Somatic cells of a male only
e. Both male and female somatic cells
____ 21. Sex determination in mammals is due to the SRY region of the Y chromosome. An abnormality
could allow which of the following to have a male phenotype?
a. Turner syndrome, 45, X
b. Translocation of SRY to an autosome of a 46, XX individual
c. A person with too many X chromosomes
d. A person with one normal and one shortened (deleted) X
e. Down syndrome, 46, XX
____ 22. Which of the following statements is true?
a. The closer two genes are on a chromosome, the lower the probability that a
crossover will occur between them.
b. The observed frequency of recombination of two genes that are far apart from each
other has a maximum value of 100%.
c. All of the traits that Mendel studied—seed color, pod shape, flower color, and
others—are due to genes linked on the same chromosome.
d. Linked genes are found on different chromosomes.
e. Crossing over occurs during prophase II of meiosis.
____ 23. How would one explain a testcross involving
dihybrid flies in which more parental-type offspring
than recombinant-type offspring are produced?
a. The two genes are linked.
b. The two genes are linked but on different chromosomes.
c. Recombination did not occur in the cell during meiosis.
d. The testcross was improperly performed.
e. Both of the characters are controlled by more than one gene.
____ 24. New combinations of linked genes are due to which of the following?
a. Nondisjunction
b. Crossing over
c. Independent assortment
d. Mixing of sperm and egg
e. Deletions
____ 25. What does a frequency of recombination of 50% indicate?
a. The two genes are likely to be located on different chromosomes.
b. All of the offspring have combinations of traits that match one of the two parents.
c. The genes are located on sex chromosomes.
d. Abnormal meiosis has occurred.
e. Independent assortment is hindered.
____ 26. A 0.1% frequency of recombination is observed
a. only in sex chromosomes.
b. only on genetic maps of viral chromosomes.
c. on unlinked chromosomes.
d. in any two genes on different chromosomes.
e. in genes located very close to one another on the same chromosome.
____ 27. The following is a map of four genes on a chromosome:
Figure 15.1
Between which two genes would you expect the highest frequency of recombination?
a. A and W
b. W and E
c. E and G
d. A and E
e. A and G
____ 28. What is the reason that linked genes are inherited together?
a. They are located close together on the same chromosome.
b. The number of genes in a cell is greater than the number of chromosomes.
c. Chromosomes are unbreakable.
d. Alleles are paired together during meiosis.
e. Genes align that way during metaphase I of meiosis.
____ 29. What is the mechanism for the production of genetic recombinants?
a. X inactivation
b. Methylation of cytosine
c. Crossing over and independent assortment
d. Nondisjunction
e. Deletions and duplications during meiosis
Refer to Figure 15.2 to answer the following questions.
Figure 15.2
____ 30. In a series of mapping experiments, the recombination frequencies for four different linked genes of
Drosophila were determined as shown in the figure. What is the order of these genes on a
chromosome map?
a. rb-cn-vg-b
b. vg-b-rb-cn
c. cn-rb-b-vg
d. b-rb-cn-vg
e. vg-cn-b-rb
____ 31. Which of the following two genes are closest on a genetic map of Drosophila?
a. b and vg
b. vg and cn
c. rb and cn
d. cn and b
e. b and rb
D, F, and J are three genes in Drosophila. The recombination frequencies for two of the three genes
are shown in Figure 15.3.
Figure 15.3
____ 32. Genes D and F could be
a. located on different chromosomes.
b. located very near to each other on the same chromosome.
c. located far from each other on the same chromosome.
d. Both A and B
e. Both A and C
____ 33. The frequency of crossing over between any two linked genes will be which of the following?
a. Higher if they are recessive
b. Dependent on how many alleles there are
c. Determined by their relative dominance
d. The same as if they were not linked
e. Proportional to the distance between them
____ 34. Map units on a linkage map cannot be relied upon to calculate physical distances on a chromosome
for which of the following reasons?
a. The frequency of crossing over varies along the length of the chromosome.
b. The relationship between recombination frequency and map units is different in
every individual.
c. Physical distances between genes change during the course of the cell cycle.
d. The gene order on the chromosomes is slightly different in every individual.
e. Linkage map distances are identical between males and females.
____ 35. Which of the following is a map of a chromosome that includes the positions of genes relative to
visible chromosomal features, such as stained bands?
a. Linkage map
b. Physical map
c. Recombination map
d. Cytogenetic map
e. Banded map
____ 36. If a human interphase nucleus contains three Barr bodies, it can be assumed that the person
a. has hemophilia.
b. is a male.
c. has four X chromosomes.
d. has Turner syndrome.
e. has Down syndrome.
____ 37. If nondisjunction occurs in meiosis II during gametogenesis, what will be the result at the
completion of meiosis?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
All the gametes will be diploid.
Half of the gametes will be n + 1, and half will be n - 1.
1/4 of the gametes will be n + 1, one will be n - 1, and two will be n.
There will be three extra gametes.
Two of the four gametes will be haploid, and two will be diploid.
____ 38. If a pair of homologous chromosomes fails to separate during anaphase of meiosis I, what will be the
chromosome number of the four resulting gametes with respect to the normal haploid number (n)?
a. n + 1; n + 1; n - 1; n - 1
b. n + 1; n - 1; n; n
c. n + 1; n - 1; n - 1; n - 1
d. n + 1; n + 1; n; n
e. n - 1; n - 1; n; n
____ 39. A cell that has 2n + 1 chromosomes is
a. trisomic.
b. monosomic.
c. euploid.
d. polyploid.
e. triploid.
____ 40. One possible result of chromosomal breakage is for a fragment to join a nonhomologous
chromosome. What is this alteration called?
a. Deletion
b. Disjunction
c. Inversion
d. Translocation
e. Duplication
____ 41. A nonreciprocal crossover causes which of the following products?
a. Deletion only
b. Duplication only
c. Nondisjunction
d. Deletion and duplication
e. Duplication and nondisjunction
____ 42. In humans, male-pattern baldness is controlled by an autosomal gene that occurs in two allelic
forms. Allele Hn determines nonbaldness, and allele Hb determines pattern baldness. In males,
because of the presence of testosterone, allele Hb is dominant over Hn. If a man and woman both
with genotype HnHb have a son, what is the chance that he will eventually be bald?
a. 0%
b. 25%
c. 33%
d. 50%
e. 75%
____ 43. Of the following human aneuploidies, which is the one that generally has the most severe impact on
the health of the individual?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
47, +21
47, XXY
47, XXX
47, XYY
45, X
____ 44. A phenotypically normal prospective couple seeks genetic counseling because the man knows that
he has a translocation of a portion of his chromosome 4 that has been exchanged with a portion of
his chromosome 12. Although he is normal because his translocation is balanced, he and his wife
want to know the probability that his sperm will be abnormal. What is your prognosis regarding his
sperm?
a. 1/4 will be normal, 1/4 with the translocation, 1/2 with duplications and deletions.
b. All will carry the same translocation as the father.
c. None will carry the translocation since abnormal sperm will die.
d. His sperm will be sterile and the couple might consider adoption.
e. 1/2 will be normal and the rest with the father's translocation.
____ 45. Abnormal chromosomes are frequent in malignant tumors. Errors such as translocations may place a
gene in close proximity to different control regions. Which of the following might then occur to
make the cancer worse?
a. An increase in non-disjunction
b. Expression of inappropriate gene products
c. A decrease in mitotic frequency
d. Death of the cancer cells in the tumor
e. Sensitivity of the immune system
____ 46. Women with Turner syndrome have a genotype characterized as which of the following?
a. aabb
b. Mental retardation and short arms
c. A karyotype of 45, X
d. A karyotype of 47, XXX
e. A deletion of the Y chromosome
____ 47. The frequency of Down syndrome in the human population is most closely correlated with which of
the following?
a. Frequency of new meiosis
b. Average of the ages of mother and father
c. Age of the mother
d. Age of the father
e. Exposure of pregnant women to environmental pollutants
____ 48. An inversion in a human chromosome often results in no demonstrable phenotypic effect in the
individual. What else may occur?
a. There may be deletions later in life.
b. Some abnormal gametes may be formed.
c. There is an increased frequency of mutation.
d. All inverted chromosomes are deleted.
e. The individual is more likely to get cancer.
____ 49. What is the source of the extra chromosome 21 in an individual with Down syndrome?
a. Nondisjunction in the mother only
b. Nondisjunction in the father only
c. Duplication of the chromosome
d. Nondisjunction or translocation in either parent
e. It is impossible to detect with current technology
____ 50. Down syndrome has a frequency in the U.S. population of ~ 1/700 live births. In which of the
following groups would you expect this to be significantly higher?
a. People in Latin or South America
b. The Inuit and other peoples in very cold habitats
c. People living in equatorial areas of the world
d. Very small population groups
e. No groups have such higher frequency
____ 51. A couple has a child with Down syndrome when the mother is 39 years old at the time of delivery.
Which is the most probable cause?
a. The woman inherited this tendency from her parents.
b. One member of the couple carried a translocation.
c. One member of the couple underwent nondisjunction in somatic cell production.
d. One member of the couple underwent nondisjunction in gamete production.
____ 52. In 1956 Tijo and Levan first successfully counted human chromosomes. The reason it would have
taken so many years to have done so would have included all but which of the following?
a. Watson and Crick's structure of DNA was not done until 1953.
b. Chromosomes were piled up on top of one another in the nucleus.
c. Chromosomes were not distinguishable during interphase.
d. A method had not yet been devised to halt mitosis at metaphase.
____ 53. At which phase(s) is it preferable to obtain chromosomes to prepare a karyotype?
a. Early prophase
b. Late telophase
c. Anaphase
d. Late anaphase or early telophase
e. Late prophase or metaphase
____ 54. In order for chromosomes to undergo inversion or translocation, which of the following is required?
a. Point mutation
b. Immunological insufficiency
c. Advanced maternal age
d. Chromosome breakage and rejoining
e. Meiosis
____ 55. Which of the following statements describes genomic imprinting?
a. It explains cases in which the gender of the parent from whom an allele is inherited
affects the expression of that allele.
b. It is greatest in females because of the larger maternal contribution of cytoplasm.
c. It may explain the transmission of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
d. It involves an irreversible alteration in the DNA sequence of imprinted genes.
____ 56.
Figure 15.4
The pedigree in Figure 15.4 shows the transmission of a trait in a particular family. Based on this
pattern of transmission, the trait is most likely
a. mitochondrial.
b. autosomal recessive.
c. sex-linked dominant.
d. sex-linked recessive.
e. autosomal dominant.
____ 57. A gene is considered to be non-Mendelian in its inheritance pattern if it seems to "violate" Mendel's
laws. Which of the following would then NOT be considered non-Mendelian?
a. A gene whose expression varies depending on the gender of the transmitting parent
b. A gene derived solely from maternal inheritance
c. A gene transmitted via the cytoplasm or cytoplasmic structures
d. A gene transmitted to males from the maternal line and from fathers to daughters
e. A gene transmitted by a virus to egg-producing cells
____ 58. Genomic imprinting is generally due to the addition of methyl (-CH3) groups to C nucleotides in
order to silence a given gene. If this depends on the sex of the parent who transmits the gene, which
of the following must be true?
a. Methylation of C is permanent in a gene.
b. Genes required for early development stages must not be imprinted.
c. Methylation of this kind must occur more in males than in females.
d. Methylation must be reversible in ovarian and testicular cells.
e. The imprints are transmitted only to gamete-producing cells.
____ 59. Correns described that the inheritance of variegated color on the leaves of certain plants was
determined by the maternal parent only. What phenomenon does this describe?
a. Mitochondrial inheritance
b. Chloroplast inheritance
c. Genomic imprinting
d. Infectious inheritance
e. Sex-linkage
____ 60. Mitochondrial DNA is primarily involved in coding for proteins needed for electron transport.
Therefore in which body systems would you expect most mitochondrial gene mutations to be
exhibited?
a. The immune system and the blood
b. Excretory and respiratory systems
c. The skin and senses
d. Nervous and muscular systems
e. Circulation
____ 61. A certain kind of snail can have a right-handed direction of shell coiling (D) or left handed coiling
(d). If direction of coiling is due to a protein deposited by the mother in the egg cytoplasm, then a Dd
egg-producing snail and a dd sperm-producing snail will have offspring of which genotype(s) and
phenotype(s)?
a. 1/2 Dd : 1/2 dd; all right coiling
b. All Dd; all right coiling
c. 1/2 Dd : 1/2 dd; half right and half left coiling
d. All Dd; all left coiling
e. All Dd; half right and half left coiling
Short Answer
62. A man with hemophilia (a recessive, sex-linked condition) has a daughter of normal phenotype. She
marries a man who is normal for the trait. What is the probability that a daughter of this mating will
be a hemophiliac? That a son will be a hemophiliac? If the couple has four sons, what is the
probability that all four will be born with hemophilia?
63. Pseudohypertrophic muscular dystrophy is an inherited disorder that causes gradual deterioration of
the muscles. It is seen almost exclusively in boys born to apparently normal parents and usually
results in death in the early teens. Is this disorder caused by a dominant or a recessive allele? Is its
inheritance sex-linked or autosomal? How do you know? Explain why this disorder is almost never
seen in girls.
64. Red-green color blindness is caused by a sex-linked recessive allele. A color-blind man marries a
woman with normal vision whose father was color-blind. What is the probability that they will have
a color-blind daughter? What is the probability that their first son will be color-blind? (Note the
different wording in the two questions.)
65. A wild-type fruit fly (heterozygous for gray body color and normal wings) is mated with a black fly
with vestigial wings. The offspring have the following phenotypic distribution: wild type, 778;
black-vestigial, 785; black-normal, 158; gray-vestigial, 162. What is the recombination frequency
between these genes for body color and wing size?
66. In another cross, a wild-type fruit fly (heterozygous for gray body color and red eyes) is mated with
a black fruit fly with purple eyes. The offspring are as follows: wild type, 721; black-purple, 751;
gray-purple, 49; black-red, 45. What is the recombination frequency between these genes for body
color and eye color? Using information from problem 4, what fruit flies (genotypes and phenotypes)
would you mate to determine the sequence of the body-color, wing-size, and eye-color genes on the
chromosome?
67. A fruit fly that is true-breeding for gray body, vestigial wings (
vg vg) is mated with one that is
true-breeding for black body, normal wings (b b
).
A) Draw the chromosomes for each P generation fly, showing the position of each allele.
B) Draw the chromosomes and label the alleles for an
fly.
C) Suppose an
female is testcrossed. Draw the chromosomes of the resulting offspring in a
Punnett square like the one at the bottom of Fig. 15.10 in your textbook.
D) Knowing that the distance between these two genes is 17 map units, predict the phenotypic ratios
of these offspring.
68. What pattern of inheritance would lead a geneticist to suspect that an inherited disorder of cell
metabolism is due to a defective mitochondrial gene?
69. Women born with an extra X chromosome (XXX) are healthy and phenotypically indistinguishable
from normal XX women. What is a likely explanation for this finding? How could you test this
explanation?
70. Determine the sequence of genes along a chromosome based on the following recombination
frequencies: A—B, 8 map units; A—C, 28 map units; A—D, 25 map units; B—C, 20 map units; B—
D, 33 map units.
71. Assume that genes A and B are linked and are 50 map units apart. An animal heterozygous at both
loci is crossed with one that is homozygous recessive at both loci. What percentage of the offspring
will show phenotypes resulting from crossovers? If you did not know that genes A and B were
linked, how would you interpret the results of this cross?
72. A space probe discovers a planet inhabited by creatures that reproduce with the same hereditary
patterns seen in humans. Three phenotypic characters are height (T = tall, t = dwarf), head
appendages (A = antennae, a = no antennae), and nose morphology (S = upturned snout, s =
downturned snout). Since the creatures are not “intelligent,” Earth scientists are able to do some
controlled breeding experiments, using various heterozygotes in testcrosses. For tall heterozygotes
with antennae, the offspring are: tall-antennae, 46; dwarf-antennae, 7; dwarf-no antennae, 42; tall-no
antennae, 5. For heterozygotes with antennae and an upturned snout, the offspring are: antennaeupturned snout, 47; antennae-downturned snout, 2; no antennae-downturned snout, 48; no antennaeupturned snout, 3. Calculate the recombination frequencies for both experiments.
73. Two genes of a flower, one controlling blue (B) versus white (b) petals and the other controlling
round (R) versus oval (r) stamens, are linked and are 10 map units apart. You cross a homozygous
blue-oval plant with a homozygous white-round plant. The resulting F1 progeny are crossed with
homozygous white-oval plants, and 1,000 F2 progeny are obtained. How many F2 plants of each of
the four phenotypes do you expect?
74. You design Drosophila crosses to provide recombination data for gene a, which is located on the
chromosome shown in Figure 15.12 in the textbook. Gene a has recombination frequencies of 14%
with the vestigial-wing locus and 26% with the brown-eye locus. Where is a located on the
chromosome?
75. Bananas plants, which are triploid, are seedless and therefore sterile. Propose a possible explanation