COMPREHENSIVE PRACTICE QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS COMPLETE GENERAL
GENETICS EXAM PREPARATION
RESOURCE MENDELIAN GENETICS, DNA
REPLICATION, GENE EXPRESSION,
MOLECULAR GENETICS AND DETAILED
STUDY GUIDE
Binomial Distribution - CORRECT ANSWER -The probability distribution of
X with parameters n and p
true-breeding - CORRECT ANSWER -term used to describe organisms that
produce offspring identical to themselves if allowed to self-pollinate
hybridization - CORRECT ANSWER -Crossing dissimilar individuals to bring
together the best of both organisms
parental generation - CORRECT ANSWER -the adults used in the first
experimental cross of a breeding experiment
Mendel's Postulates - CORRECT ANSWER -1) Genetic characters are
controlled by unit factors that exist in pairs in individual organisms.
,2) One unit factor is dominant to the other, which is said to be recessive.
3) During formation of gametes, the paired factors separate or segregate
randomly so that each gamete receives one or the other with equal
likelihood.
4) During gamete formation, segregation pairs of unit factors assort
independently of each other.
reciprocal cross - CORRECT ANSWER -a pair of crosses between a male of
one strain and a female of another, and vice versa.
dominant trait - CORRECT ANSWER -a genetic factor that blocks another
genetic factor
recessive (masked) trait - CORRECT ANSWER -a trait that is apparent only
when two recessive alleles for the same characteristic are inherited
phenotype - CORRECT ANSWER -physical characteristics of an organism
genotype - CORRECT ANSWER -an organism's genetic makeup, or allele
combinations.
homozygous - CORRECT ANSWER -An organism that has two identical
alleles for a trait
heterozygous - CORRECT ANSWER -An organism that has two different
alleles for a trait
, Law of Dominance - CORRECT ANSWER -For a gene that is expressed in a
dominant and recessive pattern, homozygous dominant and heterozygous
organisms will look identical and the recessive allele will only be observed
in homozygous recessive individuals.
Law of Segregation - CORRECT ANSWER -paired unit factors (genes) must
segregate equally into gametes such that offspring have an equal likelihood
of inheriting either factor.
law of independent assortment - CORRECT ANSWER -genes do not influence
each other with regard to the sorting of alleles into gametes, and every
possible combination of alleles for every gene is equally likely to occur.
When fertilization occurs between two true-breeding parents that differ in
only one characteristic, the process is called a ________. - CORRECT
ANSWER -monohybrid cross
Punnett Square - CORRECT ANSWER -A chart that shows all the possible
combinations of alleles that can result from a genetic cross
test cross - CORRECT ANSWER -a way to determine whether an organism
that expressed a dominant trait was a heterozygote or a homozygote
autosomal inheritance - CORRECT ANSWER -The inheritance patterns that
occur when genes are located on autosomes rather than on sex
chromosomes.