Back to homeBiology · Secondary Year 4 · Change subject
Start for free
Secondary 4 · Biology
Genetics and evolution · Genetics and inheritance

Other Inheritance Patterns

Before you start, make sure you know: The circulatory system (Secondary Year 2 (first cycle))

Yaritza is going to donate blood at the hospital in Santiago and they tell her she is blood type AB. Her cousin Enmanuel, on the other hand, has hemophilia, and in the family it almost only affects the males. Neither type AB nor hemophilia fits Mendel's «dominant» and «recessive» model. What other inheritance patterns exist, and how are they calculated?

Codominance

If you cross a pure red cow with a pure white bull, some breeds give «roan» calves, with red hairs and white hairs mixed all over the body. They are not born pink: both colors show at the same time. How can two alleles be expressed without one dominating the other?

Codominance: one homozygous red parent, one white parent, and a heterozygous offspring with red and white patches, with no blending of colors. AA (red) BB (white) AB: mottled not blended

The best-known human example is blood type AB: the person makes both antigen A and antigen B on their red blood cells.

Practice★☆☆Not started
Explain what codominance is and give a human example in which two alleles are expressed simultaneously.

Explain what codominance is and give a human example in which two alleles are expressed simultaneously.

Solve
Practice★☆☆Not started
Explain the difference between codominance and incomplete dominance, and give an example of each one.

Explain the difference between codominance and incomplete dominance, and give an example of each one.

Solve

Incomplete dominance

If you cross a pure red-flowered four o'clock plant with a pure white-flowered one, all the offspring have pink flowers. Here red does not dominate, as the yellow color of Mendel's pea did. What happens with the alleles?

Incomplete dominance: red RR, pink Rr, and white rr flowers; crossing two pink ones gives all three colors again. RR: red Rr: pink rr: white Rr × Rr gives red, pink, and white again
Practice★☆☆Not started
Explain what incomplete dominance is and describe which phenotype appears when crossing a red-flowered plant with a white-flowered plant if the trait follows this…

Explain what incomplete dominance is and describe which phenotype appears when crossing a red-flowered plant with a white-flowered plant if the trait follows this pattern.

Solve
Practice★☆☆Not started
In the four o'clock plant, flower color shows incomplete dominance: RR is red, Rr is pink and rr is white. Cross a pink-flowered plant with a white-flowered one and…

In the four o'clock plant, flower color shows incomplete dominance: RR is red, Rr is pink and rr is white. Cross a pink-flowered plant with a white-flowered one and state the genotypic and phenotypic ratios of the offspring.

Solve
Practice★★☆Not started
In four o'clock plants, flower color shows incomplete dominance: red (RR), pink (Rr) and white (rr). Complete the Punnett square in the diagram, where two pink-flowered…

In four o'clock plants, flower color shows incomplete dominance: red (RR), pink (Rr) and white (rr). Complete the Punnett square in the diagram, where two pink-flowered plants are crossed, and state the genotypic and phenotypic ratios of the offspring.

Parents Rr × Rr R r R r ? ? ? ?
Solve

Multiple alleles: the ABO blood group

In a blood bank, donations are sorted into four types: A, B, AB, and O. With only two alleles you would not get four phenotypes. So how many alleles are there?

The ABO group depends on three alleles: $I^A$, $I^B$, and $i$.

Four red blood cells with the antigens on their membranes: type A with A antigens, type B with B antigens, type AB with both, and type O with none, with the genotypes of each type. ABABO IAIA or IAi IBIB or IBi IAIB ii no antigens antigen A antigen B
Practice★☆☆Not started
The alleles $I^A$, $I^B$ and $i$ are involved in blood groups. State which genotypes correspond to blood groups A, B, AB and O.

The alleles $I^A$, $I^B$ and $i$ are involved in blood groups. State which genotypes correspond to blood groups A, B, AB and O.

Solve
Practice★☆☆Not started
A person has blood group O. State their genotype and reason whether they can have any $I^A$ or $I^B$ allele.

A person has blood group O. State their genotype and reason whether they can have any $I^A$ or $I^B$ allele.

Solve
Practice★☆☆Not started
For the ABO blood groups there are three different alleles, but each person only has two of them. Explain what multiple allelism is and why this happens.

For the ABO blood groups there are three different alleles, but each person only has two of them. Explain what multiple allelism is and why this happens.

Solve

Crosses with blood types

An ABO cross is solved just like a Mendel cross: gametes from each parent, a Punnett square, and probabilities. What is new is that there are three alleles and that a type A or B person can be homozygous or heterozygous.

Practice★★☆Not started
A person with blood group AB and a person with blood group O have a child. State the possible blood groups of the child and their probabilities, excluding each parent's…

A person with blood group AB and a person with blood group O have a child. State the possible blood groups of the child and their probabilities, excluding each parent's blood group from the possibilities.

Solve
Practice★★☆Not started
A heterozygous blood-group-A woman ($I^A i$) and a heterozygous blood-group-B man ($I^B i$) have a child. State all the blood groups the child can have and the…

A heterozygous blood-group-A woman ($I^A i$) and a heterozygous blood-group-B man ($I^B i$) have a child. State all the blood groups the child can have and the probability of each one.

Solve
Practice★★☆Not started
A person with blood group AB and another with heterozygous blood group A ($I^A i$) have a child. Calculate the probability of each possible blood group in the offspring…

A person with blood group AB and another with heterozygous blood group A ($I^A i$) have a child. Calculate the probability of each possible blood group in the offspring and reason why the child cannot be group O.

Solve

Deducing the parents' genotypes

Sometimes the child's blood type is known and the question is what the parents are like. You reason backwards: which allele must each parent have contributed?

Practice★★☆Not started
A man with blood group AB and a woman with blood group A have a child with blood group B. Deduce the mother's genotype and explain your reasoning.

A man with blood group AB and a woman with blood group A have a child with blood group B. Deduce the mother's genotype and explain your reasoning.

Solve
Practice★★★Not started
A medical emergency occurs in a hospital and a patient with blood type 0 urgently needs a transfusion. When testing their biological parents, it is found that the father…

A medical emergency occurs in a hospital and a patient with blood type 0 urgently needs a transfusion. When testing their biological parents, it is found that the father is type A and the mother is type B. A student intern claims that there must be an error in parentage, arguing that "two parents with dominant A and B antigens can never produce a type 0 child, who lacks both antigens."

  1. a) Refute the student's statement by deducing the exact genotypes that the parents must have, and represent the cross that demonstrates the genetic viability of the patient's birth.
  2. b) If this same couple has more offspring, predict the expected phenotypic percentages for each blood type.
  3. c) Justify whether any of the future siblings could donate red blood cells to the type 0 patient.
Solve
Practice★★★Not started
In a hospital maternity ward, a mix-up with three newborns occurred following a technical incident. The blood types of the three babies and the three couples have been…

In a hospital maternity ward, a mix-up with three newborns occurred following a technical incident. The blood types of the three babies and the three couples have been determined:

  • Baby 1: Type 0

  • Baby 2: Type AB

  • Baby 3: Type B

  • Couple X: Both parents are type AB.

  • Couple Y: The mother is type A and the father is type B; both know that their respective fathers (the child's grandfathers) were type 0.

  • Couple Z: The mother is type 0 and the father is type AB.

  1. a) Reasonably assign each baby to their corresponding couple. To do this, deduce the parents' genotypes and explain why you rule out the other combinations.
  2. b) If Couple Y decided to have another child, what would be the probability (in percentage) that they are born with the same blood type as Baby 2?
Solve

Sex-linked inheritance

Sex is determined by the chromosomes: women are XX and men are XY. The X chromosome is large and carries many genes; the Y is small and has almost none of the same ones. What consequence does this have for the genes on the X?

Sex chromosomes: the woman has two large X chromosomes with one allele each; the man has one large X with one allele and a small Y without that gene. Woman (XX): two alleles Man (XY): one allele X X X Y no copy of that gene

Also, the chromosome that decides sex comes from the father. The mother (XX) only gives an X; the father (XY) gives an X or a Y with equal probability. That is why boys and girls are born in a 1:1 ratio.

Practice★☆☆Not started
Explain what it means for a gene to be linked to the X chromosome and reason why men (XY) have only one allele for those genes, while women (XX) have two.

Explain what it means for a gene to be linked to the X chromosome and reason why men (XY) have only one allele for those genes, while women (XX) have two.

Solve
Practice★★☆Not started
In humans, sex is determined chromosomally: females are XX and males are XY. Explain, using the corresponding cross, why the probability of having a son or a daughter is…

In humans, sex is determined chromosomally: females are XX and males are XY. Explain, using the corresponding cross, why the probability of having a son or a daughter is equal (1:1 ratio) and which parent provides the chromosome that determines the sex of the offspring.

Solve
Practice★★☆Not started
A color-blind man ($X^d Y$) has children with a woman with normal vision who is not a carrier ($X^D X^D$). State the genotypes and phenotypes of the sons and of the…

A color-blind man ($X^d Y$) has children with a woman with normal vision who is not a carrier ($X^D X^D$). State the genotypes and phenotypes of the sons and of the daughters, and explain why this type of inheritance is said to go "criss-cross" from fathers to daughters.

Solve

Color blindness and hemophilia: «criss-cross» inheritance

Two classic X-linked diseases are color blindness (difficulty telling colors apart, especially red and green) and hemophilia (the blood clots poorly). Both are recessive. Notation: $X^D$ normal vision and $X^d$ color blindness; $X^H$ normal clotting and $X^h$ hemophilia.

Criss-cross inheritance: a color-blind grandfather passes the allele to his carrier daughter, who may pass it to a color-blind grandson. Grandfather XdY color-blind Carrier daughter XDXd Grandson XdY (50%) the grandfather gives his X the daughter gives the X with the allele from grandfather to grandson, through the daughter

Go back to the beginning: Yaritza is AB because she has the codominant $I^A$ and $I^B$ alleles, and Enmanuel has hemophilia because his only X carries the recessive allele and there is no other allele to cover it.

Practice★★★Not started
A woman who is a carrier of the color-blindness allele ($X^D X^d$) has children with a man with normal vision. What is the probability of each son being color-blind? And…

A woman who is a carrier of the color-blindness allele ($X^D X^d$) has children with a man with normal vision. What is the probability of each son being color-blind? And each daughter? Reason both answers using a genetic cross.

Solve
Practice★★★Not started
Queen Victoria of Great Britain was a heterozygous carrier of hemophilia ($X^H X^h$) and her consort, Prince Albert, had normal blood clotting ($X^H Y$). Among their…

Queen Victoria of Great Britain was a heterozygous carrier of hemophilia ($X^H X^h$) and her consort, Prince Albert, had normal blood clotting ($X^H Y$). Among their descendant European dynasties, several affected males were observed, but no female with hemophilia.

  1. a) A rumor at the time claimed that if Prince Albert had been hemophilic, 100% of the couple's daughters would have been born with the disease. Demonstrate through a genetic cross whether this statement is true or false, indicating the expected phenotypic and genotypic percentages for daughters in that scenario.
  2. b) Deduce what two simultaneous genetic and phenotypic conditions had to coincide in both parents for a hemophilic girl to be born in that era.
  3. c) Justify at the chromosomal level why males cannot be healthy carriers of an X-linked recessive disease.
Solve
Practice★★★Not started
A woman with normal vision whose father was color-blind has children with a man with normal vision. Deduce the woman's genotype and calculate the probability of each son…

A woman with normal vision whose father was color-blind has children with a man with normal vision. Deduce the woman's genotype and calculate the probability of each son being color-blind and of each daughter being a carrier.

Solve

Summary

See all the exercises in this section