Genetic Diagrams

Question 1

what are alleles and how are they represented on genetic diagrams?

Answer 1

-alleles are different versions of genes represented by letters on genetic diagrams e.g. Aa
-organisms have 2 alleles per gene, one on each chromosome in a pair

Question 2

How do homozygous and hetrozygous traits differ?

Answer 2

-homozygous traits have two identical alleles e.g. this might be represented as AA
-hetrozygous traits have 2 different alleles e.g. Aa

Question 3

what are dominant and recessive alleles and how do they differ?

Answer 3

-dominant alleles are stronger than recessive ones in determining traits and are represented by capital letters on a genetic diagram e.g. in a allele pair of Aa the ‘A’ is the dominant allele while the ‘a’ would be recessive
-an organism only displays recessive traits when it has 2 recessive alleles for that trait e.g. in an allele pair of Aa the dominant allele would still be stronger but in a pair of ‘aa’ the recessive allele would be displayed in the organism

Question 4

Draw a genetic diagram for the breeding of 2 homozygous hamsters:

Answer 4

*the super powered allele is recessive (“b” )

Question 5

Draw a genetic diagram for the breeding of 2 heterozygous hamsters:

Answer 5

*there is 3:1 ratio of super powered offspring (so there is a 1/4 or 25% probability of the offspring having superpowers)