Dihybrid Cross

This is the inheritance of two pairs of alleles/genes/characteristics. Dihybrid crosses llow geneticists to

predict the possible genotypes and phenotypes of two traits. With dihybrid inheritance, the key thing to

remember is that each gamete must have one of each letter and that the resulting offspring must therefore

have two copies of EACH letter. The recognized rtio for the F2 is 9:3:3:1

Parental phenotype tall purple X short white

Parental genotype TTPP X ttpp

Gametes
TP tp

F1 progeny ALL TtPp

F1selfed Tt Pp X TtPp

Example 1: If true breeding plants with round yellow seeds are crossed with true breeding plants that have

wrinkled green seeds, all the progeny will have round yellow seeds. What can you deduce from this

statement?

Answer:

. If yellow seeds are designated as “Y” then green seeds have the allele “y”.

If round seeds are designated as “R” then wrinkled seeds have the allele “r”.

True breeding plants with round yellow seeds have the genotype RRYY.

True breeding plants with wrinkled green seeds have the genotype rryy.

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Parental phenotype:

Parental genotype:

Progeny, F1:

At meiosis (possible gametes) :

♀ ♂ RY Ry Yr ry

RY
Ry

Yr

ry

Qu. How many different genotypes are present?

inability to see shadows. The dominant allele “H” causes groundhogs to hide from shadows that

they see. If a heterozygous shadow- seeing and hiding male is crossed with a heterozygous

shadow-seeing female who doesn’t hide what expected proportion of their progeny will hide

from shadows?

Parental phenotype: Male Female

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 ♂ ♀

Epistasis

Organisms inherit many genes from their parents. These genes contribute to the total genotype of

the offspring. Most of the genes are inherited in a simple Mendelian fashion, but the pattern is

often obscured in the phenotype for two reasons:

1. Individual genes have many effects.

2. Genes at different loci interact (gene interaction) one type of gene interaction is called

epistasis. This is the phenomenon in which the presence of the dominant allele “A” hides

the effect of another dominant allele“B” such that “A” expresses itself phenotypically.

 How is epistasis similar to dominance?

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How is epistasis different from regular dominance?

 ________________________________________________________________________

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 ________________________________________________________________________

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 ________________________________________________________________________

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 ________________________________________________________________________

The gene that does the modification (interference) is called the epistatic gene. The gene whose

phenotype is modified or inhibited is called the hypostatic gene. Epistasis produces very unusual

ratios in genetics crosses. There are four types of epistasis:

Recessive Epistasis 9: 3: 4 Dominant Epistasis 12: 3: 1 Double Recessive Epistasis 9:7

Double Dominant Epistasis 15: 1

Dominant Epistasis

This occurs when the presence of the dominant allele hides the effect of another dominant allele.

Coat colour in animals is determined by epistatic genes. One gene determines whether there is

any pigment produced at all, while the other determines the pattern or precise colour. The

patterned gene cannot have any effect unless there is some pigment there, sometimes many

different genes interact to give colours.

For example: “A” codes for agouti colour (a band of yellow near the tip of each hair which

modifies the overall appearance of fur, or a greyish pattern formed by alternating bands of

pigments on each hair). Most cats are agouti but some are black and others are white. The allele

for agouti “A” is dominant to the allele for black “B”. When two heterozygotes are crossed,

show that from this cross only one white cat is produced.

Parental Genotype:

Gametes:

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 AB Ab aB ab
AB
Ab
aB
ab

Chi – Squared Test

The chi-squared test is a method used to estimate the probability that the differences between the

observed results and the expected results, O and E respectively are due to chance.

Example: plants grown from smooth seeds SS (dominant) were crossed with plants from

wrinkled seeds ss (recessive). The F1 progeny were all heterozygotes. The F2 generation

produced 90 smooth seeds and 22 wrinkled seeds. Show how you would set up a table to apply

the formulae for chi-square:

To find x2, where O = observed; E = expected. Once the chi-square is known, how would you

use a table of chi–square values to determine the probability that the difference between the

observed and the expected results is due to chance only.

Parental phenotype

Parental genotype

Gametes

F1 generation

F1 selfed

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F2 generation

Calculation for the expected ratio:

Chi- Square Test

Phenotype Smooth Wrinkled

The probability associated with the value can be obtained from the chi-square tables

Degrees of Freedom

This is a mathematical term relating to the number of free variables in a system.

Degree of Freedom (df) = n-1 where n is the number of classes of data (number of phenotypes)

Degree of freedom = n-1

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According to the table of chi-square values
0.2 > p > 0.1 (p = probability)
1.64 < x2 < 2.71 (greater than 1.64 but less than 2.71)
Probability is opposite to the chi-square value
How to read the Chi-Square Value
1. Enter the chi-square table of values at the degree of freedom calculated.

2. Look for the corresponding value at 0.05 probability which represents your critical value

of x2.

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 Interpretation

If the calculated chi-square value is less than the tabulated value at 0.05, then we accept the null

hypothesis i.e. the probability must be greater than or equal to 0.05. Any difference seen

between the observed and the expected values are due to chance and they are not significant.

If the calculated chi-square value is greater than he tabulated value at 0.05, then we reject the

null hypothesis i.e. if the probability is less than 0.05, then the difference between what we

expect and what we observe is not due to chance and is significant (there is a significant

difference and the difference could be due to either:

Linkage

Crossing Over

A statistical test must test some hypothesis. The chi-square tests the null hypothesis which states:

there is no significant difference between the observed and the expected results.