Review Questions - Lecture 12: Patterns of Inheritance
1. Why did Mendel’s work matter?
2. Why was Mendel successful in his work? What circumstances might have kept him from achieving
an understanding of inheritance?
3. What are the four parts of a flower and what are their functions?
4. Provide a brief definition of self-fertilization and cross-fertilization that clearly distinguishes
between the two terms.
5. What does the phrase “true breeding” mean?
6. What is a hybrid?
7. Distinguish between the following: P generation, F1 generation, F2 generation.
8. What is an allele?
9. Provide a brief definition of homozygous and heterozygous clearly distinguishes between the two
terms.
10. Provide a brief definition of dominant allele and recessive allele that clearly distinguishes between
the two terms.
11. Provide a brief definition of monohybrid cross and dihybrid cross that clearly distinguishes between
the two terms.
12. Provide a brief definition of phenotype and genotype that clearly distinguishes between the two
terms.
13. In a monohybrid cross of two true breeding parents, where the traits follow simple
dominant/recessive patterns, what is the phenotypic ratio you expect to find in the F2 generation?
what is the genotypic ratio?
14. In a dihybrid cross of two true breeding parents, where the traits follow simple dominant/recessive
patterns and are not linked, what is the phenotypic ratio you expect to find in the F2 generation?
what is the genotypic ratio?
15. What does the term “loci” mean?
16. What were the four hypothesis Mendel was working with?
17. What are the two laws that Mendel proposed?
18. What is a testcross and why is it used? Do testcrosses always provide you with the information you
are looking for? Why or why not?
19. Provide a brief definition of incomplete dominance and codominance that clearly distinguishes
between the two terms.
20. Provide a brief definition of pleiotrophy and polygenic inheritance that clearly distinguishes between
the two terms.
21. What is epistasis?
22. Under what circumstances can environmental factors be inherited?
23. What is a “wild type” alleles?
24. Are dominant alleles more common than recessive alleles?
25. What circumstances would lead to a higher rate of expression of a recessive disease in a population?
26. Why are recessive lethal disorders more common than dominant lethal disorders?
Review Questions - Lecture 13: Chromosomal Basis of Inheritance
27. What is the chromosomal theory of inheritance?
28. This theory was worked out in the early 1900s. What important pieces of work were done prior to
that time that allowed for the theory to be worked out?
29. Why is Drosophila melanogaster an ideal model organism?
30. What experiments were done using Drosophila melanogaster and why were they important?
31. What are sex linked genes?
32. What are the differences between the X and Y chromosome?
33. What is X chromosome inactivation?
34. Why are recessive sex linked traits found more often in males?
35. What is a linked gene?
36. Which of Mendel’s Laws do linked genes violate?
37. Make a diagram showing the effect that crossing over can have on linked genes.
38. What is a linkage map?
39. What assumptions are made when making a linkage map?
40. Draw a picture that shows the meaning of nondisjunction.
41. What is aneuploidy?
42. What is polyploidy?
43. What group of organisms is polyploidy common in?
44. Make a diagram showing the difference between a deletion and a duplication.
45. Make a diagram showing the difference between an inversion and a reciprocal translocation.
46. What is the cause of chronic myelogenous lukemia?
47. What is genomic imprinting and what affect can it have on an organism?
48. What are some examples of phenotypic expression of genes from mitochondria and chloroplasts?