The Simpson Pedigree
Many years ago, Abe Simpson married Penelope Olson. The two were madly in love and had two
sons – Herb and Homer. Not much is know about Herb! When Homer was in high school, he met Marge,
a straight-laced student who fatefully found herself in detention one day. As the saying goes, the rest was
history. Homer and Marge got married. Marge’s family was not without the drama either. Marge’s mom,
Jackie married C. Montgomery Burns, the wealthy owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Their
first children were actually identical twin girls Patty and Selma (they got Mr. Burns’ good looks!). Patty
eventually ended up marrying Troy McClure, the actor, much to the surprise of her sister/best friend/only
friend, Selma. In retaliation, Selma married the Comic Book Guy and they had two children – a girl named
Patty and a son named Jub-Jub (after her favorite pet lizard).
Back to Marge and Homer – Marge and Homer’s first child, Bartholomew was quite a terror. Fortunately,
their second child, Lisa was less trouble. Six years later, Maggie was born. Bart reunited with one of his
first loves, Reverend Lovejoy’s daughter, and they got married at a Krusty Burger in Springfield. As Lisa
grew up, so did her friends and she eventually married her long time friend, Ralph Wiggum. Their on,
Langdon, was named after Lisa’s first crush. Despite her inability to speak, Maggie married Todd Flanders
(diddly- doodly) and their only son was named Noah (a name chose by Ned)
You are the geneticist hired by the Simpson family to trace the recessive “four finger disease” throughout
the family. You have been able to collect the data given below. Your job is to create a pedigree and
determine the genotypes of each family member. You will present this pedigree to Lisa so she can then
help her family predict the possibility of having more four fingered children.
The following have 4 fingers:
Langdon, Noah, Homer, Penelope, Mr. Burns, Troy, Bart and the Comic Book Guy
1.
2.
3.
Draw the pedigree (with names)
Label the generations and individuals
Determine genotypes of ALL family members as best you can.
Are there any family members whose genotypes you cannot determine?
If Patty and Troy have children, what is the probability they will have a child with four fingers?
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