Worksheet Inheritance II BIOL 101

Name: _______________________________________________________________________

(first and last name)

Directions: Read the information provided with each cross before doing the activity.

PART A: CODOMINANCE

In a codominant situation, BOTH alleles will be expressed if the individual is heterozygous for
the trait. When alleles are codominant we use a capital “placeholder” letter and the allele is
indicated in the superscript. For example, in cows (and bulls), the color of the fur is a
codominant trait. The allele that will result in brown fur is indicated by F B and the allele that
will produce white fur is indicated by F W. Use this information to answer the following
questions.
F^B
1. Suppose a cow has all brown fur, what is the GENOTYPE of this cow? _______________

F^W
2. Suppose a bull has all white fur, what is the GENOTYPE of this bull? ________________

3. Suppose the all brown cow and the all white bull are mated .

i. Indicate all the alleles the all brown cow can pass on to her calves.

✔ FB FW

ii. Indicate all the alleles the all white bull can pass on to his calves.

FB ✔ FW

iii. What is the GENOTYPE of the calves produced from this pairing?

They will have both the white and brown genes

iv. What is the PHEONTYPE of the calves produced from this pairing?

For the phenotype they will have both white and brown cows

1
Worksheet Inheritance II BIOL 101

PART B. CODOMINANCE and MULTIPE ALLELES

Background Information: Blood types in humans is a codominant trait but also has multiple
alleles. The different alleles are “IA”= type A sugars on the blood, “IB” = type B sugars on the
blood, “i” = type O blood (no sugars produced).

The A (IA) and B (IB) alleles are completely dominant to the O allele (i), and the A and B
alleles are codominant with each other.

1. Complete the Punnett squares for this cross of a female for blood type B and a male of
blood type AB.

I^A I^B I^A I^B I^A I^B I^A i

I^B I^B I^B I^B I^B I^B I^B i

2. Based on these two Punnett squares, indicate the ONE blood type that could not be produced
by a female with type B blood and a male with type AB blood as seen in the Punnett squares above.

✔ Type A Type B Type AB Type O

3. Suppose we also considered the gene for the rh factor which indicates if the blood type is
positive (+) for the rh protein or negative (-) for the rh protein. The allele for the rh factor
is an instance of complete dominance and the dominant allele “R” results in the protein
being present. This gene is found on a different piece of DNA than the gene for blood
sugar.

Consider a man with a genotype of IA IB R r (phenotype of type AB+). What are the
FOUR possible combinations this man could pass on in his sperm? Remember, each
sperm must contain ONE of the alleles for blood sugar and ONE of the alleles for the rh
factor.

I^A R I^A r I^B R I^B r

__________ ___________ __________ ___________